American soldiers pass by a plank card hung near the front gate of the USFK’s 2nd Infantry Division base located at Uijeongbu, Gyeonggi Province, Monday. What's Happening Now With Our Iraq Deployment? 4,000 USFK Troops to Iraq U.S. to Send One USFK Brigade to Iraq So We Have USFK Reductions After All? No Security Vacuum After USFK Transfer: Ban

According to Yonhap, diplomatic sources in Washington said Sunday that, "The U.S. Department of Defense dispatched 5,700 troops that were supposed to replace men in the 2nd Infantry Division to the northern Iraqi city of Mosul last December... I know the U.S. has informed Korea that it will send about 4,000 troops originally earmarked for Korea to Iraq this time."

Accordingly, observers say that more than by directly moving troops from Korea to Iraq, the U.S. is choosing not to send troops to Korea and allowing USFK numbers to come down that way.

The U.S. currently stations about 135,000 troops in Iraq.

(englishnews@chosun.com )