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WASHINGTON - South Korean and U.S. officials met here Wednesday for assistant-secretary-level talks regarding the proposed dispatch of South Korean troops to Iraq, while Washington said that multinational units would be newly formed before next May and that many U.S. troops in Iraq would be replaced. Officials are discussing the terms of the dispatch such as size, location, and troop characteristics, but have yet to reach a consensus.
The U.S. Department of Defense said that about 130,000 U.S. soldiers in Iraq would be replaced by U.S. Marines and newly mobilized National Guard and reserve troops, and that the total of U.S. troops in Iraq would drop to about 100,000.
U.S. media outlets reported that the Pentagon would apparently replace the 101st Airborne Division in the northern Iraq city of Mosul with a smaller group of U.S. forces. The U.S. Army had planned to replace the 101st with a multinational division. But the international force has not materialized, and the Pentagon has been forced to call on other U.S. forces to fill the gap, reports said.
As a result, Seoul and Washington are back to ground zero to discuss the location for the troop dispatch. South Korean and U.S. officials concentrated talks on the size and characteristics of the troops according to the new U.S. rotation plan, but failed to reach agreements.
At the talks were Assistant Deputy Foreign Minister Lee Soo-hyuk, the Defense Ministry policy director Cha Young-gu, the chief of the National Security Council's Strategy Planning Division Seo Joo-seok, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly and Deputy Assistant Defense Secretary Richard Lawless.
(Joo Yong-jung, midway@chosun.com )
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