The US plans to cut its troops in South Korea by a third by the end of next year, part of a worldwide shift to the use of higher technology in defense, the two countries said yesterday.
Although communist North Korea's 1.1-million-strong armed forces dwarf the US contingent of 37,500 troops, any reduction is closely watched because its symbolic deterrent value outweighs its numerical strength. Ally South Korea has 690,000 troops.
"US officials told us last night that under their Global Defense Posture Review they are planning to reduce the number of US troops here by 12,500 by the end of December 2005," Kim Sook, head of the ministry's North America bureau, told reporters.
That would include 3,600 US soldiers already earmarked for deployment to Iraq from South Korea.
A statement released by United States Forces Korea (USFK) confirmed the details of the proposed redeployment plan, although a USFK spokeswoman declined to comment further.
Washington announced late last year that it aimed to transform its forces deployed worldwide using advances in military technology and smaller, more mobile units to better respond to different types of security needs.
Kim was briefing reporters after a first day of talks with US officials on moving American troops back from front-line positions near the Demilitarized Zone border with the North.
Asked whether South Korea had agreed to the pullout schedule, Kim said: "That is what the United States presented as their plan and we're going to discuss it."
Many South Koreans have expressed surprise about the US plans, and media have called for care in timing the reductions because of ongoing talks on curbing North Korea's nuclear ambitions. Pyongyang has described the planned cuts as a ploy to mask plans to attack North Korea.
security conditions
Kim said the US officials had said Washington would pursue the reduction very carefully because of the security conditions on the peninsula.
South Korea had yet to receive notification of which US forces would be moved from which locations under the proposed reduction, Wi Sung-lac, a National Security Council official, told reporters.
No formal discussion on the reduction took place at yesterday's ninth round of talks on relocating US troops within South Korea. Those talks, started last year, cover moving the US military headquarters from central Seoul to the south of the capital as well as the pullback from the Demilitarized Zone area that divides the peninsula.
southern strength
Kim said the US welcomed Seoul's plans for a more independent defense and would actively help South Korea as it upgrades its military to be more self-sufficient.
South Korean and US officials have said the redeployment to Iraq, and any future changes to the US military in the South, would not weaken their combined defense against the North.
The US has earmarked US$11 billion for force upgrades, while South Korea has discussed plans to increase defense spending.
Because the 1950-1953 Korean War ended in a truce rather than a peace treaty, the two Koreas are technically still at war.
North Korea's military is the world's fifth largest and the army plays a dominant role in the country's politics and economy. South Korea's is the sixth-largest military in the world.
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