WASHINGTON, D.C. -- A high-ranking official from the Bush administration said Saturday (local time) about the reduction in scale of U.S. forces in Korea (USFK) that, ¡°No decision has been made yet. President Bush and President Roh will decide after discussions between the two governments.¡± The official, who wished to remain anonymous, said in a meeting with correspondents in Washington, D.C. that the U.S. would present a strategic concept of USFK at the 9th Future of the Alliance Talks (FOTA) instead of presenting any specific reduction scales. This official said that through discussions between Korea and the United States, USFK may be adjusted in a direction so it can conduct missions in other regions in Northeast Asia in the future. While emphasizing the importance of discussions between the two countries on the adjustment of USFK, the official said that if Roh had opposed the sending of some USFK units to Iraq, ¡°[the transfer] would have been suspended and the situation reconsidered.¡±
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U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld (right) speaks to Defense Minister Cho Young Kil (second from left) and Singapore's Minister for Defence and Rear Admiral Teo Chee Hean (second from right) during a lunch meeting at the IISS Asia Security Conference in Singapore on Saturday.
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About the North Korean nuclear issue, the official said the U.S. accepted the three-level plan presented by South Korea, but this was refused by North Korea. The three-level plans included North Korea agreeing to the abolition of its nuclear and freezing it, surrounding countries supporting energy to North Korea, and security guarantees to North Korea. The official said, ¡°North Korea will not receive any support from foreign countries unless it abolishes its nuclear program. There will be no more carrots and the pressure will grow heavier.¡±
Meanwhile, because China opposes the transformation of USFK into a rapid deployment force and the expansion of the role of the alliance to cover areas outside the Korean Peninsula, there is an increasing possibility that this matter will grow into a multinational issue.
The U.S. has already revealed its conception of expanding the area of activity for the Korea-U.S. alliance to the Northeast Asian region through the comments of 8th U.S. Army commander Lt. Gen. Charles C. Campbell, who said the combined forces of Korea and the U.S. might perform peacekeeping operations in Northeast Asia. The Korean government protested at that time that it worried Campbell¡¯s statement might provoke China.
Nevertheless, comments related to both transforming USFK into a mobile force that could be rapidly deployed in the Asian region and the expansion of the Korea-U.S. alliance are continuously coming from the Bush administration, and this means that discussions on applying the "Rumsfeld Doctrine" to the Korea-U.S. alliance have progressed fairly far within the U.S. government. The Chinese government expressed its position through the Chinese Embassy in Korea that, ¡°The USFK redeployment issue mustn't harm our interests,¡± and is closely observing the situation. Accordingly, the issue of determining the character of the Korea-U.S. alliance is becoming a potential conflict factor between the U.S. and China, and there is some indication that Korea may end up getting stuck between them.
(Joo Yong-joong, midway@chosun.com )
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