The US military government in Korea (USAMGIK) from 1945 to 1948 was a textbook military occupation under the Hague Convention of 1907. The US Army landed on September 8, 1945, dissolved the nascent People's Republic of Korea (PRK), banned the people's committees that had sprung up across the south, and ruled by decree for three full years. The occupation did not end because the US "willingly" handed over power. It ended because the US unilaterally installed Syngman Rhee as president in 1948 after a UN‑supervised election that was boycotted in the north. And even then, the US did not leave. By Rhee's inauguration, US forces still numbered 16,000, and they have never withdrawn entirely.

In 1994, South Korea regained peacetime operational control of its own military. But wartime operational control (OPCON) remains with a four‑star US general to this day. Under the current Combined Forces Command structure, if war breaks out tomorrow, every South Korean soldier would automatically answer to an American commander without Seoul’s consent. It continues to be a 70‑year‑old military subordination that the US has repeatedly delayed transferring. As of May 2026, the US insists on "conditions‑based" transfer and opposes a "politically convenient" timeline. South Korea’s president himself is pushing back against this delay. And a foreign general holding final command over a sovereign nation’s military in wartime is, by any definition, continuing military occupation.