South Korean Defense Ministry said Wednesday that the United States suggested giving back the wartime operational control of South Korean troop to Seoul by 2010.

The U.S. proposal is earlier than the South Korean Defense Ministry's plan to take over the wartime control from the United States in five years, an unnamed official of the ministry said.

South Korea and the United States held military talks last week to discuss issues including a timetable of the transfer of wartime operational command from the U.S. side.

The U.S.-led U.N. Command captured the operational control of South Korean military forces in 1950 when the Korean War erupted. South Korea took back the peacetime control of its 650,000-strong forces in 1994 but the wartime operational control still remains in the hands of the U.S. commander in South Korea.

South Korea and the United States began to review a proposal to create separate command systems to replace the Combined Forces Command (CFC) in October last year.

Source: Xinhua