All US troops in Seoul to be relocated

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Saturday, January 17, 2004

All US troops in Seoul to be relocated

South Korea and the United States agreed Saturday (Seoul time) in a meeting held in Hawaii, US, to relocate all the US troops currently stationed in Seoul.

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South Korea and the United States agreed Saturday (Seoul time) in a meeting held in Hawaii, US, to relocate all the US troops currently stationed in Seoul.

According to a South Korean Yonhap News Agency's report from Hawaii, the two allies reached the agreement at the end of a two-day meeting named "Future of the ROK (Republic of Korea)-US Alliance Policy Initiative" talks.

South Korean Assistant Defense Minister for Policy Lt. Gen. ChaYoung-koo and US Assistant Secretary of Defense Richard Lawless respectively led the two teams and finally announced a joint statement.

The US now stations some 37,000 troops in the Asian country. Among them, 8,000 are in the Yongsang Base, the US Forces Korea (USFK)'s headquarters, in central Seoul.

According to the agreement, all the 8,000 US troops, including the ROK-US Combined Forces Command (CFC) and the United Nations Command (UNC), will move out of Seoul to Pyeongtaek, a city some 70 kilometers south to Seoul, before 2006.

Only the USFK general command office along with 50 relevant personnel will remain in Seoul. And South Korea will shoulder all the expenses of 3 billion US dollars of the relocation.

Seoul and Washington opened the talks aiming to discussing realignment of the ROK-US alliance from March 2003. They agreed earlier in principal to relocate US troops stationed here, including retreating some 14,000 troops of the 2nd Infantry Division from the inter-Korean border to areas south of Seoul.

South Korea originally hoped the US will keep 1,000 troops and personnel as a symbol of the 50-year-old alliance in Seoul. However, the US demand larger land than Seoul agreed to provide for the remaining 1,000 US personnel.

The differences led the talks to a stalemate situation since late last year.

Last November, Washington informed Seoul it will pull all the troops out of Seoul. The South Korean delegation failed to persuade the United States to change its strong mind over the issue in the talks.

Moreover, according to local TV YTN's report, the US delegationreiterated in the just concluded talks that the "realignment of USFK is inevitable for it is a part of new US military strategy inthe world."

And US officials pledged that the relocation of US troops will not undermine the deterrent power of US troops against foreign attack.

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