US military denies report on troop reduction in S.Korea

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, March 02, 2004

US military denies report on troop reduction in S.Korea

The US military command in Seoul denied Tuesday a local press report that it will reduce its 37,000troops stationed on the Korean Peninsula by about one third.

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The US military command in Seoul denied Tuesday a local press report that it will reduce its 37,000troops stationed on the Korean Peninsula by about one third.

Television broadcaster SBS in its Monday report said the US military notified Seoul of its plan to remove 12,000 troops from South Korea by 2006.

"An SBS report Monday evening claiming that the US plans to reduce the number of forces in South Korea is not true," the US command said in a news release.

According to the release, South Korean and US officials have not discussed a US troop reduction during the past seven rounds oftalks on their half-century alliance.

Moreover, according to a report of the South Korean Yonhap newsagency, South Korean Vice Defense Minister Yu Bo-sun also dismissed the SBS report, describing it as "totally groundless."

Yu said the government has never engaged in any talks on the reduction of about 37,000 US forces deployed here. "We've never discussed that and we have no plan to do that."

On the question of whether the United States was moving to makeits forces on the peninsula a kind of rapid deployment force whichcan be sent to conflict regions, Yu said Seoul has yet to discuss it in detail, but added, "It is natural for the US forces in SouthKorea to be mechanized and modernized because the US has earmarked11 billion US dollars for that purpose."

Seoul and Washington agreed at a meeting in Honolulu on Jan. 16that all US troops in the Yongsan Garrison in central Seoul and the US Second Infantry Division near the Demilitarized Zone will be moved to Pyeongtaek, about 70 kilometers south of Seoul, by theend of 2007.

Despite repeated US denials, analysts say the relocation plans are a preliminary step for eventual American troop reduction in South Korea.

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