South Korea’s Defense Ministry on Monday attempted to dispel concerns over speculations that the second Trump administration could reduce the number of US troops stationed here in order to focus on deterring threats from China and bolstering homeland defense.
“The biggest role of the US Forces Korea in South Korea is to uphold the peace and stability of the Korean Peninsula and that will remain unchanged,” Seoul's Defense Ministry spokesperson Jeon Ha-kyou said during a regular press briefing.
Jeon’s remarks were in response to a question from a reporter addressing the concerns stemming from a Washington Post Sunday on secret internal guidance that the Pentagon plans to “reorient” the US military to prioritize deterring China’s seizure of Taiwan and shoring up homeland defense. The US would pressure allies in Europe, the Middle East and East Asia to increase their role in deterring risks tied to Russia, North Korea and Iran, the report added.
The report cited a nine-page internal guidance memo dubbed “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance” that was signed by US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and distributed throughout the Pentagon in mid-March.
At the same time, Jeon stressed that the “Pentagon has yet to release an official statement (regarding the report),” and that Seoul’s Defense Ministry “doesn't have much to say” on the matter for the moment.
“Our military maintains a strong joint defense posture based on the South Korea-US alliance in preparation for various situations,” Jeon said.
The Washington Post report comes amid growing concerns here that the Trump administration could take measures to reduce the size of the 28,500 US troops stationed on the Korean Peninsula, despite North Korea’s advancing nuclear weapons program. Observers say that Washington could possibly pressure Seoul into renegotiating the bilateral defense cost-sharing deal in the future, using the size of the troops as leverage for negotiations.
Before taking office as Pentagon chief, Hegseth said that “increased ally and partner defense spending and burden sharing” are crucial for the US to ensure that its relations with other nations are “not one-sided,” according to him. The remarks were made as part of written answers submitted to the Senate Armed Services Committee ahead of his confirmation hearing in January.
Hegseth who embarked on his first multicountry trip to the Indo-Pacific region last week, since taking office in January, left South Korea off of his itinerary. The move added to concerns that the political turmoil here caused by impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s Dec. 3 martial law declaration has negatively impacted the allies’ decades-old alliance. Washington, however, has repeatedly reaffirmed its “ironclad” commitment to the alliance.
mkjung@heraldcorp.com
