http://www.latimes.com/news/nationwo...home-headlines
Bush Seeks Troop Reduction in S. Korea
By Barbara Demick, Times Staff Writer
SEOUL — The Pentagon wants to reduce its troop presence in South Korea by one-third by the end of next year, a far quicker and deeper troop cut than had been anticipated.
The South Korean government said today that it was notified of the troop reduction by Assistant Secretary of State Richard Lawless on the eve of an annual meeting between U.S. and Korean military officials.
The news apparently took the South Korean government by surprise, although smaller cuts were expected.
There has been much public fretting here lately about the psychological impact of U.S. troop reductions on financial markets and the economy, and about North Korea's ongoing development of nuclear weapons.
Kim Sook, head of the foreign ministry's North American division, said that the United States wanted to cut the 37,000 troops by about 12,500. Those cuts would include 3,600 soldiers from the 2nd Infantry Division who are being redeployed from the demilitarized zone to Iraq.
Kim gave no indication of what the South Korean response was to the proposal, saying simply: "That is what the United States presented as their plan and we are going to discuss it."
South Korean officials quoted in the media have said they are pleading with the United States to delay the reduction until 2007.
The troop reductions are just one part of a global restructuring that is supposed to make U.S. forces more flexible and more mobile. For years, Pentagon officials have been unhappy about having large numbers of troops stuck at the DMZ, where they cannot be deployed to other trouble spots and would likely be trapped in the middle should another conflict break out with North Korea.
Among South Koreans, there is also a sense that the U.S. troop cuts are proof of a weakening U.S.-Korean alliance as a result of the left-of-center government of President Roh Moo Hyun.
"There was this binge of populist, nationalist anti-Americanism and now they are paying the consequences," said Lee Chung Min, an international relations specialist at Seoul's Yonsei University and a frequent critic of the current South Korean government. He said that South Koreans fear a weakening of their economy, such as occurred after the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the Philippines.
"If the U.S. footprint here gets smaller by the day, there could be economic repercussions. One reason that foreign companies have been willing to invest in Korea is because of the strong U.S. alliance."
The U.S. troop presence at the DMZ dates back to the end of the Korean War. The number has been reduced repeatedly since the end of the war as tensions calmed with North Korea.
The last time there was a significant troop reduction in South Korea was in 1971, when the number was cut from 63,000 to 43,000. In 1992, another 5,000 troops were cut.