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The U.S. official told Korean, Japanese and U.S. reporters at the U.S. Department of Defense that there would be cuts on top of the 12,500 that the two countries previously agreed once Korea exercises independent wartime control of its own forces.

He said the cuts would not affect combat readiness. As part of a worldwide realignment of U.S. troops, Seoul and Washington originally agreed to a cut in the U.S. Forces Korea from 37,000 to 25,000 by 2008.

An F-18 Super Hornet is launched from the deck of the U.S. aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln during joint Korean-U.S. military exercises off the port city of Busan on March 30, 2006.

But a Korean Defense Ministry official said the troop cuts "are proceeding according to the agreement between Korean and the U.S., which outlines reducing forces by 12,500 and maintaining a force of 25,000; there has been no change to this framework." The official added if Korea withdraws wartime control of its troops from the U.S., it is “inevitable” that there will be changes to Combined Forces Command and support forces. The “additional cuts” the high-ranking U.S. official talked about are not large-scale changes similar to the 12,500-man reduction “but rather a sort of alignment," he added.

But some experts point out that this is the first time a senior official in the U.S. Defense Department has publicly talked about “additional” cuts, which suggests the scope could be significant.

The official also said the question of U.S. reinforcements from abroad in emergencies falls “outside the scope” of the bilateral Security Consultative Meeting in Washington in October. There have been fears for some time that the withdrawal of wartime control of Korean forces will mean major cuts to the 690,000 reinforcement troops Korea hopes will stand in readiness. Seoul wants the matter clearly spelled out in formal documents, which is expected to cause further friction between the two countries.

(englishnews@chosun.com )