South Korea’s Defense Ministry said Friday that it has not held talks with the Pentagon over the potential withdrawal of thousands of U.S. troops from South Korea.
The remarks came after The Wall Street Journal reported that the White House is considering an option to pull out roughly 4,500 troops and relocate them to areas in the Indo-Pacific region, including the U.S. territory of Guam.
Such a move would likely stoke concern in Japan and other U.S. allies and partners in the region and further fuel concerns about President Donald Trump’s commitment to Asia.
Citing unidentified defense officials familiar with the discussions, the Journal reported Thursday that the idea is being prepared for consideration by Trump’s administration as part of an informal policy review on dealing with nuclear-armed North Korea.
The proposal has yet to reach Trump’s desk and is one of several ideas under discussion, the officials cautioned.
The U.S. currently stations 28,500 troops in South Korea.
“As the core strength of the South Korea-U.S. alliance, the USFK, alongside our military, has contributed to the peace and stability of the Korean Peninsula and in the region by maintaining a firm combined defense posture and deterring North Korea’s invasion and provocation,” the Yonhap news agency quoted the South Korean Defense Ministry as saying.
“We will continue to cooperate with the U.S. side to advance in such a direction,” it added.
A Pentagon spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump has a history of labeling the U.S.-South Korea alliance as an “unfair” partnership and during his first term threatened to remove American troops there or slash their numbers unless Seoul coughed up more money for hosting them.
