SEOUL, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- South Korea will take over wartime operational control of its military forces from the United States by April 17, 2012, the South Korea's Yonhap News Agency reported on Saturday.

　　According to a joint press statement signed by the defense ministers of South Korea and the United States, the South Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command (CFC) will simultaneously be disbanded.

　　The two allies will set up a new "supporting-supported command relationship" after abandoning the CFC system, while the United Nations Command will remain in place, the statement said.

　　The statement came after a meeting between South Korean Defense Minister Kim Jang-soo and U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates in Washington.

　　During the meeting, the two defense ministers reaffirmed earlier agreements on relocating U.S. forces out of Seoul and pledged close cooperation on their implementation, Yonhap said.

　　The two sides also agreed on the importance of training and exercises to maintaining a high-level of combined war fighting capability, the statement said.

　　South Korea and the United States launched negotiations in October 2005 on the creation of new command systems that can replace the US-led Combined Forces Command (CFC).

　　The US-led UN Command captured the operational control of South Korean military forces in 1950 when the Korean War erupted. In 1978, the CFC was created and took over wartime control rights from the UNC.

　　Seoul took back the peacetime control of South Korea's 680,000-strong forces in 1994 while the wartime operational control remains in the hands of the US commander in South Korea.