WTB
03-07-2003, 11:14 PM
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/08/international/asia/08SEOU.html
Musing on an Exodus of G.I.'s, South Korea Hails U.S. Presence
By JAMES BROOKE
EOUL, South Korea, March 7 — Hints by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld that some American military units should leave South Korea are provoking a sudden new appreciation of the United States military presence here.
Within hours of Mr. Rumsfeld's musings that American soldiers should be shifted out of North Korean artillery range, South Korea's new prime minister, Goh Kun, hurried to a meeting with the American ambassador here and said, "The role of the U.S. troops as a tripwire must be maintained."
About one-third of the 37,000 American troops are situated north of the Han River, near the demilitarized zone, where they are easy targets for the roughly 11,000 North Korean artillery pieces lined up on the border. In a strategy that has kept the peace on the Korean peninsula for half a century, the Americans serve as living guarantees that the United States would be drawn into a second Korean war if the North Koreans ever repeated their 1950 invasion of the South.
It would be "inappropriate to talk about redeploying U.S. troops at this time, given the tension surrounding the nuclear issue," Prime Minister Goh told the American ambassador, Thomas Hubbard. The South Korean spoke for the 10-day-old government of President Roh Moo-Hyun, a liberal who was elected last December on the shoulders of mass demonstrations against the conduct of American troops here.
Today, Defense Minister Cho Young Kil assured South Korea's National Assembly that the United States has not officially presented any plan to withdraw any troops.
The two allies "will not discuss any possibility of movement of U.S. troops before the nuclear issue is resolved," he said, referring to North Korea's apparent ambition to build a nuclear weapons arsenal.
After a huge pro-American demonstration here last Saturday, supporters of the American military presence are increasingly finding their voices.
"It is not the time to withdraw the U.S. troops from South Korea," Lee Joo Hyun, a 26-year-old business school student said emphatically, after scanning this morning's headlines. "The Korean situation is not that stable. North Korea is really unpredictable. We don't know what they are going to do."
South Koreans fear that a new, conservative argument for redeployment is gaining traction in the Bush administration. In this view, American soldiers on the border are in effect human shields, preventing the administration from ever bombing North Korea's nuclear facilities. Today, the first of 24 bombers arrived in Guam, a move that Pentagon officials have said is not part of any plan to attack North Korea.
Noting that South Korea has an economy 25 or 35 times bigger than North Korea's, Mr. Rumsfeld said Thursday that the South "has all the capability in the world of providing the kind of upfront deterrent that's needed."
In comments at the Pentagon, Mr. Rumsfeld suggested that the American military could play a more supportive role on the Korean peninsula arranging its forces at an "air hub" and "sea hub," and as reinforcements for South Korean front-line troops.
"I suspect that what we'll do is we'll end up making some adjustments there," Mr. Rumsfeld said. "Whether the forces would come home or whether they'd move farther south on the peninsula or whether they would move to a neighboring area are the kinds of things that are being sorted out."
Today, North Korea declared a maritime exclusion zone through Tuesday in a section of the ocean between the Korean peninsula and Japan, signaling it was planning a missile test.
Musing on an Exodus of G.I.'s, South Korea Hails U.S. Presence
By JAMES BROOKE
EOUL, South Korea, March 7 — Hints by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld that some American military units should leave South Korea are provoking a sudden new appreciation of the United States military presence here.
Within hours of Mr. Rumsfeld's musings that American soldiers should be shifted out of North Korean artillery range, South Korea's new prime minister, Goh Kun, hurried to a meeting with the American ambassador here and said, "The role of the U.S. troops as a tripwire must be maintained."
About one-third of the 37,000 American troops are situated north of the Han River, near the demilitarized zone, where they are easy targets for the roughly 11,000 North Korean artillery pieces lined up on the border. In a strategy that has kept the peace on the Korean peninsula for half a century, the Americans serve as living guarantees that the United States would be drawn into a second Korean war if the North Koreans ever repeated their 1950 invasion of the South.
It would be "inappropriate to talk about redeploying U.S. troops at this time, given the tension surrounding the nuclear issue," Prime Minister Goh told the American ambassador, Thomas Hubbard. The South Korean spoke for the 10-day-old government of President Roh Moo-Hyun, a liberal who was elected last December on the shoulders of mass demonstrations against the conduct of American troops here.
Today, Defense Minister Cho Young Kil assured South Korea's National Assembly that the United States has not officially presented any plan to withdraw any troops.
The two allies "will not discuss any possibility of movement of U.S. troops before the nuclear issue is resolved," he said, referring to North Korea's apparent ambition to build a nuclear weapons arsenal.
After a huge pro-American demonstration here last Saturday, supporters of the American military presence are increasingly finding their voices.
"It is not the time to withdraw the U.S. troops from South Korea," Lee Joo Hyun, a 26-year-old business school student said emphatically, after scanning this morning's headlines. "The Korean situation is not that stable. North Korea is really unpredictable. We don't know what they are going to do."
South Koreans fear that a new, conservative argument for redeployment is gaining traction in the Bush administration. In this view, American soldiers on the border are in effect human shields, preventing the administration from ever bombing North Korea's nuclear facilities. Today, the first of 24 bombers arrived in Guam, a move that Pentagon officials have said is not part of any plan to attack North Korea.
Noting that South Korea has an economy 25 or 35 times bigger than North Korea's, Mr. Rumsfeld said Thursday that the South "has all the capability in the world of providing the kind of upfront deterrent that's needed."
In comments at the Pentagon, Mr. Rumsfeld suggested that the American military could play a more supportive role on the Korean peninsula arranging its forces at an "air hub" and "sea hub," and as reinforcements for South Korean front-line troops.
"I suspect that what we'll do is we'll end up making some adjustments there," Mr. Rumsfeld said. "Whether the forces would come home or whether they'd move farther south on the peninsula or whether they would move to a neighboring area are the kinds of things that are being sorted out."
Today, North Korea declared a maritime exclusion zone through Tuesday in a section of the ocean between the Korean peninsula and Japan, signaling it was planning a missile test.