Defense Ministry says '94% OPCON transfer' remark was not a classified leak; DAPA to support Hanwha probe

South Korea's Defense Ministry said Monday that Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-baek's remark at the Shangri-La Dialogue — that South Korea and the United States had agreed in 2020 that 94 percent of the conditions for wartime operational control transfer had been met — did not constitute a leak of military secrets.

Defense Ministry spokesperson Jeong Bit-na, speaking at a regular briefing, said Ahn's comment was "an approximate figure offered to help the public understand and exercise their right to know regarding the swift recovery of operational control." She added that it "does not constitute classified information because it does not specify the concrete contents of any combined secret."

At the Shangri-La Dialogue last month, Ahn told reporters he had conveyed to U.S. lawmakers that "the conditions-based transfer of operational control has been sufficiently fulfilled, and there would be no difficulty even if the transfer took place on Wednesday, June 3." He added that he had "fully explained the phased capabilities, including the fact that South Korea and the United States had already agreed in 2020 that 94 percent of the OPCON transfer conditions had been met."

Asked how Ahn's public remark differed from the ministry's previous position — that it could not provide figures on OPCON transfer conditions to the National Assembly because they were classified as combined secrets — Jeong said the Assembly inquiry had concerned the results of a joint South Korea-U.S. evaluation. "The figure the minister cited was an approximate number drawn from past assessments by our authorities, offered as an example because the U.S. congressional delegation was not familiar with the details," she said. "The two situations are clearly different."

The episode has drawn comparisons to a controversy involving Unification Minister Jeong Dong-young over an alleged leak of classified North Korea-related information. Asked whether there had been any progress following Ahn's meeting last month with U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth — at which Ahn reportedly said Washington appeared unaware of restrictions on sharing North Korea intelligence and agreed to follow up — Jeong said it was "difficult to confirm the specifics of what was discussed," but that South Korea and the United States were "currently in close communication and exchanging information on related matters on a regular basis."

Meanwhile, the Defense Acquisition Program Administration said Monday it would support the investigation into an explosion at Hanwha Aerospace's Daejeon plant by providing, if necessary, personnel from specialized agencies including the Agency for Defense Development and the Defense Agency for Technology and Quality.

DAPA spokesperson Kim Ju-cheol said the agency had formed a safety accident response task force, headed by its deputy director, to manage the situation and was "actively cooperating to help bring the accident under control."

Kim added that the agency would "draw on the personnel and technical expertise of the ADD, the DATQ and other specialized agencies as needed during the process of determining the cause." He pledged to "work closely with relevant authorities to definitively establish the cause of the accident and put in place a plan going forward."

DAPA oversees the licensing and supervision of the manufacturing of military firearms, swords and explosives under the Defense Acquisition Program Act and conducts annual inspections of related facilities.

Asked whether safety gaps may have existed at the site given that it is a high-security defense facility, Kim said a comprehensive cause analysis would be conducted by the Central Industrial Accident Response Headquarters under the Ministry of Employment and Labor.