South Korea's former ranking officer Ahn Kwang-chan was named as the nation's chief negotiator to alliance talks with the United States, the Defense Ministry said Friday.

Ahn, a retired two-star Army general who has served as deputy chief of staff and deputy operation director at the (South) Korea-US Combined Forces Command in Seoul, will officially take the postof assistant defense minister for policy on Monday, the ministry said in a statement.

One main role of the post is to represent the South Korean side in negotiations with US military officials known as the Future of the Alliance forum aimed at reshaping the half-century bilateral military alliance, the South Korean news agency Yonhap said Friday.

In their previous alliance forums, the two countries agreed to transfer most of the US troops stationed in Seoul and northwards to locations south of the capital. The US also told South Korea that it planned to reduce its troops in the nation by one-third.

About 37,000 US troops are now stationed in South Korea.

Source: Xinhua