WASHINGTON — A former commander of U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) warned Monday that hastening the transfer of wartime operational control (OPCON) to South Korea by setting an arbitrary timeline could increase security risks and weaken the allies' deterrence capabilities against North Korea. Retired Gen. Robert Abrams, who led USFK from 2018-21, made the remarks during a webinar hosted by the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, as he discussed the allies' long-running efforts to transfer wartime OPCON from Washington to Seoul. "From my perspective and experience, I think there's a lot of risk that hasn't been properly been explained to everyone about hastening this (OPCON transfer) and putting it on a timeline," Abrams said. "Time-based fundamentally just increases risk and the risk is because there's still going to be operational shortfalls on the ROK military side," Abrams said, referring to South Korea by the acronym of its official name, the Republic of Korea. Abrams stressed that Seoul and Washington "need to make sure that we have sufficient force and capab