Text Fwd: U.S. not to reduce American troops in Korea: Pentagon

* Yonhap News
U.S. not to reduce American troops in Korea: Pentagon
By Hwang Doo-hyong
2009/10/28 07:17 KST

WASHINGTON, Oct. 27 (Yonhap) -- The United States Tuesday reconfirmed its commitment to maintain the number of U.S. troops in South Korea amid concerns that Washington is considering redeploying its forces in Korea to conflict regions.

"At last week's SCM, Secretary Gates reiterated his firm commitment to maintaining troop levels on the peninsula, and as a sign of that commitment he is moving forward with normalizing tours to South Korea so that our forces and their families will live and work there," Geoff Morrell, Pentagon spokesman, told Yonhap News Agency. Gates was in Seoul last week to attend the annual Security Consultative Meeting.

Concerns erupted in South Korea when Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told U.S. soldiers at Yongsan Army Garrison in Seoul Thursday that discussions are under way about rotating U.S. troops in South Korea, although he said, "I certainly wouldn't expect this to happen in the near future."

About 28,500 U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea as a deterrent against North Korea, which remains technically at war with the allies since the cease-fire that ended the 1950-53 Korean conflict.

One theory is that the Barack Obama administration may reduce its ground troops in South Korea for possible redeployment abroad after Seoul reassumes full command of its troops as scheduled in April 2012. That would allow the U.S. to focus on building air and naval forces on the Korean Peninsula. South Korea got back peacetime control of its forces in 1994.

The timing coincides with the completion of facilities for the dependents of the majority of the 28,500 American troops in South Korea, which may facilitate three-year tours, up from the current one year.

"Certainly, that's something that we are looking very specifically at," Mullen said. "And, in fact, there have been forces that were here that went to Iraq very early. And we're in discussion. No decisions with respect to that right now."

Earlier this year, a U.S. Apache attack helicopter battalion assigned to Korea was sent to Afghanistan to reinforce American forces struggling in the war-torn Central Asian state.

The battalion's redeployment triggered concerns in South Korea that the Obama administration may follow up on the flexible troop deployment drawn up by the previous George W. Bush administration to make its easier for U.S. troops in the Korean Peninsula to be mobilized to war zones.

The South Korean Defense Ministry said Monday that it has never discussed a possible U.S. troop reduction in Korea and that the U.S. government has reconfirmed its pledge to maintain the number of U.S. troops in South Korea at the current level.

"The concern that gets raised with respect to rotating forces out of here is that it lessens the commitment to the alliance and the Republic of Korea," said Mullen, but he added, "There are regional challenges that we have here, and actually they are global challenges, so there is no answer to that question yet."

Some analysts see Mullen's remarks as pressure on South Korea to send troops back to Afghanistan, a move the Seoul government is still considering.

In a joint news conference with South Korean Defense Minister Kim Tae-young in Seoul Thursday, Gates said that South Koreans themselves will make any decision on troop deployments or any other form of aid to Afghanistan.

In a speech at Yongsan Garrison a day earlier, however, Gates touched on the sensitive issue in a bit more aggressively.

"The United States and the Republic of Korea are invariably bound by the same mutual interest in peace and stability around the world, bringing new resonance to the words 'We go together,'" Gates said. "We encourage the Republic of Korea's political leaders to make an investment in defense appropriate to Korea's emerging role as a contributor to global security and commensurate with the threat you face on the peninsula."

Taking note of South Korea's troop dispatches to Vietnam and Iraq, Gates said, "I see a different dynamic and logic to Korea's international military role today. In the past, deployments were considered something that Korea was doing for the United States. Going forward, Korea's international military contributions should be seen as what they are: something that is done to benefit your own security and vital national interests."

Some analysts said Gates was trying to pave the way for Obama to raise the issue when he meets with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak in Seoul in mid-November.

Obama is being pressured by the U.S. military to dispatch 40,000 more troops to Afghanistan, where the Taliban insurgency is gaining power, despite the presence of about 68,000 American troops. Some fear Afghanistan might turn out to be another quagmire like Vietnam.

South Korea withdrew more than 200 military medics and engineers from Afghanistan in 2007 after 23 South Korean Christian missionaries were held captive. Two of them were killed and the rest released after the Seoul government pledged to withdraw the troops by the end of that year.

South Korea, which currently maintains scores of medical civilians at a U.S. base in Afghanistan, had plans to increase the number to 85 by year's end.

On Monday, South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan said that increased aid to Afghanistan by South Korea is linked to the stable deployment of U.S. troops in the Korean Peninsula.

Yu also revealed a new plan, under discussion among government agencies, to send a 130-strong Provincial Reconstruction Team accompanied by 300 troops to protect the civilian medics and engineers.

hdh@yna.co.kr
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