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The United States has agreed to delay a deadline for its planned troop reductions in South Korea until 2008 at the request of the Seoul government, a news report said Oct. 4.
The deadline was pushed back by three years under a tentative agreement to be announced this week, Seoul’s Yonhap news agency said.
The United States originally planned to withdraw by next year 12,500 troops, a third of the number deployed in South Korea since the end of the 1950-1953 war with the communist North. "The withdrawal of U.S. troops will be gradually made and completed by 2008, three years later than the initially offered 2005, as the U.S. side accepted the South Korean request," Yonhap said, citing the tentative accord.
Neither South Korean defense ministry nor U.S. military officials in Seoul could confirm the report.
But Seoul officials said they were confident of reaching a deal on the timing of the troop withdrawal before an annual defense chiefs’ meeting in Washington in October.
"It is certain for both sides to strike a deal before the annual SCM (security consultative meeting) later this month," a South Korean defense ministry official said.
President George W. Bush announced last month that as many as 70,000 U.S. troops would eventually leave Europe and Asia in a move related to the "war on terror" and to meeting new threats. The realignment has sparked security fears among some South Koreans since Seoul is only 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the heavily-fortified demilitarized zone that divides the North and South.
Washington has insisted any withdrawal will not weaken its deterrent against North Korea, citing the deployment of advanced military equipment.
At military alliance talks, U.S. and South Korean authorities agreed to relocate the US military headquarters from Seoul to Pyongtaek, 80 kilometers south of the capital, by 2008.
Yonhap said US military authorities also agreed to scrap their plan to withdraw MLRS (multiple launch rocket system) units from the border with North Korea under the tentative agreement.
MLRS units are designed to trace and hit back North Korea’s heavy artillery which have the South Korean capital city within range.
Park Jin of the opposition Grand National Party cited a report by the state-run Korea Institute for Defense Analyses as saying Monday that the North Korean artillery could easily devastate Seoul.
"If North Korea’s long-range artillery are fired, some 25,000 shells per hour would rain down and destroy one third of Seoul within one hour according to the report," Park said.
Seoul would fall to North Korea within 15 days if South Korea attempted to fight a war with the communist state without support from the U.S. military, he said.
http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?F=386188&C=america
The deadline was pushed back by three years under a tentative agreement to be announced this week, Seoul’s Yonhap news agency said.
The United States originally planned to withdraw by next year 12,500 troops, a third of the number deployed in South Korea since the end of the 1950-1953 war with the communist North. "The withdrawal of U.S. troops will be gradually made and completed by 2008, three years later than the initially offered 2005, as the U.S. side accepted the South Korean request," Yonhap said, citing the tentative accord.
Neither South Korean defense ministry nor U.S. military officials in Seoul could confirm the report.
But Seoul officials said they were confident of reaching a deal on the timing of the troop withdrawal before an annual defense chiefs’ meeting in Washington in October.
"It is certain for both sides to strike a deal before the annual SCM (security consultative meeting) later this month," a South Korean defense ministry official said.
President George W. Bush announced last month that as many as 70,000 U.S. troops would eventually leave Europe and Asia in a move related to the "war on terror" and to meeting new threats. The realignment has sparked security fears among some South Koreans since Seoul is only 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the heavily-fortified demilitarized zone that divides the North and South.
Washington has insisted any withdrawal will not weaken its deterrent against North Korea, citing the deployment of advanced military equipment.
At military alliance talks, U.S. and South Korean authorities agreed to relocate the US military headquarters from Seoul to Pyongtaek, 80 kilometers south of the capital, by 2008.
Yonhap said US military authorities also agreed to scrap their plan to withdraw MLRS (multiple launch rocket system) units from the border with North Korea under the tentative agreement.
MLRS units are designed to trace and hit back North Korea’s heavy artillery which have the South Korean capital city within range.
Park Jin of the opposition Grand National Party cited a report by the state-run Korea Institute for Defense Analyses as saying Monday that the North Korean artillery could easily devastate Seoul.
"If North Korea’s long-range artillery are fired, some 25,000 shells per hour would rain down and destroy one third of Seoul within one hour according to the report," Park said.
Seoul would fall to North Korea within 15 days if South Korea attempted to fight a war with the communist state without support from the U.S. military, he said.
http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?F=386188&C=america