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The U.S. Defense Department said that it has no plan to further reduce U.S. troops stationed in South Korea after 2008, although the two countries reached an agreement to transition wartime operational control of Korean troops to Seoul by April 17, 2012.
In a press briefing on the results of ministerial bilateral defense talks held on Friday, U.S. Defense Department spokesman Maj. David Smith said that the number of U.S. troops in Korea will be cut from the current 28,000 to 25,000 by 2008 in line with the third phase of reduction plans. But further reductions are not in the foreseeable future, he said.
The U.S. has said that it will maintain the current combat capability by providing supplementary forces even after control is transferred to Seoul. But military experts point out that the possibility of additional reductions remains depending on how the U.S. strengthens its military bases in Guam and Japan and relocates its forces around the globe.
Larry Niksch, a specialist in Asian affairs at the U.S. Congressional Research Service, said recently that it is only a matter of time before the U.S. withdraws all its ground forces from Korea by moving the single remaining brigade to another region. Of two brigades under the second U.S. infantry division, one was already relocated to Iraq, he said. Niksh predicted that the U.S. will considerably strengthen its air forces in Korea and indirectly support Korea¡¯s naval forces from its naval bases in Japan.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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