Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has asked South Korea to pony up more for US forces on the peninsula as Seoul pushes for greater control in a new command relationship. The Korea Times reports that Rumsfeld wrote in a letter to South Korean officials that Seoul should shoulder an “equitable” portion of the country’s defense. Rumsfeld also noted that the US would prefer to shift operational control by 2009, but Seoul wants to wait until 2012.
The U.S., South Korea, and Japan flew an unusual trilateral flight with two U.S. B-52H Stratofortress bombers escorted by two Japan Air Self-Defense Force F-2s, and two ROK Air Force KF-16 fighters—both countries’ respective variants of the F-16—July 11. That same weekend, the top military officers of the three nations…