U.S. May Cut Korea Garrison Further

The number of U.S. troops stationed in Korea may be reduced further than the 25,000 currently agreed between Seoul and Washington when the role of the troops changes with upcoming events, such as the transfer of wartime command of the Korean military to the South Korean government, according to a senior U.S. Defense Department official on Monday.

At the conference with Korean correspondents to Washington, the official added that he did not believe there will be “a substantial reduction.” He noted the U.S. also hopes to hand over the wartime control in 2009 (three years earlier than South Korea’s proposal) and that the Combined Forces Command will inevitably be dismantled.

However, the official declared that the United Nations Command (UNC), the symbolic supervisor of the armistice between the two Koreas, will remain and that the UNC will continue with a senior leader from the U.S. troops retaining the responsibilities as commander.

Expressing special concern over the training range of U.S. Air Force in Korea as a very sensitive agenda, he recounted that there have been repeated problems with the lack of a target range and called it “a very serious issue.”

“Now we have a situation where if this problem is not resolved in the near term, that is in the next couple of months, entire units will have to leave the peninsula (for training) on a rotating basis,`` the official said.

He added that it would be a very bad sign for the alliance between South Korea and the U.S. and “the worst signal you can send to North Korea.”