The US announced on Friday that all of the US troops based in Seoul would be moved out of the South Korean capital by December 2008.
The Pentagon, in a statement, said US and South Korean officials had finalized an agreement here this week to redeploy the approximately 8,000 US troops in Seoul to new military facilities in Pyongtaek, some 80km south of the capital.
"The relocation of US forces out of Seoul will be completed by December 2008," the US Defense Department statement said.
It said that US and South Korean officials, at their 10th round of talks, had also finalized amendments to the plan to eventually relocate the 2nd Infantry Division from camps north of Seoul to facilities in the Pyongtaek area.
The 14,000-strong 2nd Infantry Division is based along the Demilitarized Zone with North Korea.
"A final decision on the timing of the 2nd Infantry Division relocation will be decided by the respective national leaders at a later date," the statement said.
The decision would be made "taking careful account of the political, economic and security situation on the peninsula and in Northeast Asia," it added.
US forces have been based at Yongsan in Seoul since the 1945 defeat of Imperial Japan in World War II. The sprawling installation occupies 252 hectares in the heart of the South Korean capital of 11 million people.
The base, which grew dramatically in size after the 1950-1953 Korean War, has been a major symbol of the US military presence in intensely nationalistic South Korea and the target of numerous anti-American protests.
The two sides had been aiming for an agreement that would relocate the US military base out of Seoul by 2007. Negotiations have been bogged down in discussions over the costs of relocation and the amount of land to make up the new US military facilities.
Richard Lawless, the US Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Asia Pacific affairs and top US negotiator, welcomed the agreement announced on Friday.
"This relocation agreement helps us meet our enduring commitment to the defense of Korea and to the security and stability of the region," he said.
Lawless and Evans Revere of the State Department led the US delegations to the talks while South Korea was represented by Ahn Kwang Chan of the Ministry of National Defense, and Kim Sook from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
The US has already announced plans to withdraw some 12,500 troops from its 37,000-strong military contingent in South Korea as part of a global review designed to produce a more agile fighting force. It has insisted any withdrawal would not weaken its deterrent against North Korea.
Despite an unresolved showdown with Pyongyang over its nuclear weapons program, Pentagon officials maintain that the nearly 700,000-strong South Korean military can plug any troop gap.
US ground troops have served as a guarantee since the end of the Korean War that any invasion of the South would immediately draw in the US. But more than half a century later, Pentagon officials contend the so-called "tripwire" is an anachronism in an age of high tech sensors and computer networks, precision weapons and US military dominance in the air and at sea.
Gaza is rapidly running out of its limited fuel supply and stocks of food staples might become tight, officials said, after Israel blocked the entry of fuel and goods into the war-shattered territory, citing fighting with Iran. The Israeli military closed all Gaza border crossings on Saturday after announcing airstrikes on Iran carried out jointly with the US. Israeli authorities late on Monday night said that they would reopen the Kerem Shalom crossing from Israel to Gaza yesterday, for “gradual entry of humanitarian aid” into the strip, without saying how much. Israeli authorities previously said the crossings could not be operated safely during
Hungarian authorities temporarily detained seven Ukrainian citizens and seized two armored cars carrying tens of millions of euros in cash across Hungary on suspicion of money laundering, officials said on Friday. The Ukrainians were released on Friday, following their detention on Thursday, but Hungarian officials held onto the cash, prompting Ukraine to accuse Hungary’s Russia-friendly government of illegally seizing the money. “We will not tolerate this state banditism,” Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said. The seven detained Ukrainians were employees of the Ukrainian state-owned Oschadbank, who were traveling in the two armored cars that were carrying the money between Austria and
Kosovar President Vjosa Osmani on Friday after dissolving the Kosovar parliament said a snap election should be held as soon as possible to avoid another prolonged political crisis in the Balkan country at a time of global turmoil. Osmani said it is important for Kosovo to wrap up the upcoming election process and form functional institutions for political stability as the war rages in the Middle East. “Precisely because the geopolitical situation is that complex, it is important to finish this electoral process which is coming up,” she said. “It is very hard now to imagine what will happen next.” Kosovo, which declared
MORE BANS: Australia last year required sites to remove accounts held by under-16s, with a few countries pushing for similar action at an EU level and India considering its own ban Indonesia on Friday said it would ban social media access for children under 16, citing threats from online pornography, cyberbullying, online fraud and Internet addiction. “Accounts belonging to children under 16 on high-risk platforms will start to be deactivated, beginning with YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Bigo Live and Roblox,” Indonesian Minister of Communications and Digital Meutya Hafid said. “The government is stepping in so that parents no longer have to fight alone against the giants of the algorithm. Implementation will begin on March 28, 2026,” she said. The social media ban would be introduced in stages “until all platforms fulfill their
RSS