Text Fwd: U.S. reconfirms pledge to maintain current level of troops in Korea: Adm. Mullen

Yonhap News
2009/12/09 06:09 KST
U.S. reconfirms pledge to maintain current level of troops in Korea: Adm. Mullen
By Hwang Doo-hyong

WASHINGTON, Dec. 8 (Yonhap) -- The United States Tuesday reaffirmed its pledge to maintain the current level of its troops in South Korea, dispelling media speculation that some U.S. forces might redeploy to Afghanistan.

"We are very committed to 28,500 troops' presence in South Korea. That's strongly reaffirmed by President Obama, both publicly as well as his meetings with President Lee (Myung-bak)," said Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in a news conference here.

Mullen's remarks came amid controversy over the remarks by Obama to American soldiers in Seoul last month. "The story of your service goes beyond this peninsula," Obama said. "Others among you served in Afghanistan. Others among you will deploy yet again."

Mullen himself said in October that discussions are under way about rotating U.S. troops in South Korea.

South Korean officials have said the remarks by Obama and Mullen should not be taken as a possible troop reduction in Korea, but rather a routine rotation of troops without reducing the number. They added they have never discussed a troop reduction with the U.S.

Mullen, however, said the Obama administration will follow up on the strategic flexibility posture drawn up by the Bush administration for rapid deployment of U.S. troops abroad to conflict regions.

"The idea of strategic flexibility is one we are addressing with the South Korean leadership," he said. "We think it is very important, part of a strategic concept for security both for the region and globally."

Faced with tough resistance from Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan, Obama last week announced plans to send 30,000 more troops to the war-ravaged central Asian state early next year to bring the number of U.S. troops there to more than 100,000.

South Korea has said it will send a 140-strong Provincial Reconstruction Team to Afghanistan next year, accompanied by about 320 troops for their protection.

More than 30,000 multinational forces are already operating in Afghanistan in support of the U.S. effort against Al Qaida and Taliban insurgents. NATO says it will soon send another 7,000 troops.

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 Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan recently said that increased aid to Afghanistan by South Korea is linked to the stable deployment of 28,500 U.S. troops in the Korean Peninsula, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War.