Is Korea an independant state ? (Post scriptum)

As if to confirm my previous post, some retired military officers/generals recently protested wartime control transfer with a letter to the Korean president in which they claim the coming years are going to be too unstable to afford changing the current organization of the army.
In short, since everybody expects Kim Jong-il, the North's leader, to step down in favor of one of his sons (or it might take the shape of a common leadership) in the next 5 to 10 years, changing this agreement with the US would be too risky for Korea's security.

Right.

Even though analysts of North Korea think the North's succession "might" happen in that timeframe, first, nothing is for sure, and second, even if that were to happen, what about after the succession has taken place ? For sure, these same people will come up with another argument about the situation being still unstable, the US election coming up, the economic crisis having a negative impact on North-South relationships and the end of the world of december 2012 quickly approaching (i.e. Mayan calendar) we should not take the risk to blah blah blah...

What I mean is, whatever the circumstances, some Koreans (South) will always oppose a potential handover, such as the one that is supposed to take place in 2012 (before the Mayan's end of the world by the way). It only confirms the deelply seated belief they have that it is safer for Korea not to be 100% independent. This way, the US, China, or whatever superpower it happens to be have to take their responsabilities and help out Korea.

Some people might think I'm being harsh. But definitely no. I'm only being harsh toward these ex-generals who want Korea to remain submissive to a bigger power in order to get protected and not take their responsabilities.
These generals seem to think with a mindset that prevailed in the Joseon period, where China was at the center and surrounding countries had to somehow pay their respects.
The thing is, we're no longer in the 19th century, the US is not China and Americans don't envision diplomatic relationships or military alliances on this model at all, so these ex-military had rather take care of some other business, because, in any case, North Korea is not going to attack anybody anytime soon, so there aren't actually any risk of war if the people in charge on both sides act reasonably.
A closed and dictatotial regime is not synonymous with lunacy.