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TOKYO -- Japanese Kyodo news agency, quoting U.S. and Japanese sources, said Tuesday that as part of its relocation plan for U.S. troops based overseas, the U.S. would send 1,000 marines from the 3rd Marine Division stationed in Okinawa, Japan, to a drill camp located in southern Korea for regular training before 2008.
The U.S. will also relocate its 1,190 marines of the same division to Southeast Asian countries like the Philippines on a long-term basis. Through these relocations, about 2,190 U.S marines located in Okinawa will be reduced by 2008.
The sources said that the relocations are the first phase of the U.S.¡¯s plan to reduce its marines in Okinawa. Before 2008, when the projected relocation of some U.S marines from Okinawa to the Japanese mainland starts, the U.S. aims to first reduce marines on the island by expanding the scale and lengthening the period of training conducted in Asia-Pacific regions with these relocations.
According to the sources, the number of marines who will be relocated to the Japanese mainland in 2008 would be 2,600, including artillery, infantry and supply units.
If these relocation plans are completed, 4,790 men (27 percent) of the marines stationed in Okinawa would be reduced from the current 17,700.
(Jung Kwon-hyun, khjung@chosun.com )
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