Japan’s Asahi Shimbun says South Korea and the U.S.’s Operations Plan (OPLAN) 5015 includes many guerrilla warfare factors.
 
The paper said Monday that initially, South Korea and the U.S. placed importance on operations plans that are based on scenarios of an all-out war on the ground, like the Korean War. However, the daily said that the two allies decided to devise OPLAN 5015, a new war plan against the North, after the North engaged in a series of armed provocations.
 
According to the daily, OPLAN 5015 centers on special forces’ operations aimed at assassinating certain figures or destroying certain facilities. The daily said the operations plan aims to reduce the number of casualties and save costs of war.
 
The report also said that South Korea-U.S. military operations plans are shifting their focus from large-scale ground battles to guerrilla and local wars as well as toward preparing for the collapse of the North’s government.
 
The newspaper said the new war plan reflects the Obama administration’s intention to implement military strategies that are focused on local wars which center on utilizing unmanned aircraft and special forces.