South Korea’s defense ministry said there has been “absolutely no discussion” with the US regarding a potential US troop withdrawal.
US troops stationed in South Korea are a core part of the two countries’ alliance, helping to deter North Korea from invading or making provocations while contributing to peace and stability in the region, the ministry said in a text message to reporters.The WSJ report said one of the options under discussion includes relocating some of the 28,500 US troops in South Korea to other locations in the Indo-Pacific region, including Guam. The proposal has not reached US President Donald Trump’s desk yet and is one of several ideas being discussed by senior officials conducting the review, the report said.
Trump has pushed US allies to step up military spending in return for deploying American troops in conflict zones. In October, just before winning the presidential election, Trump said South Korea would pay billions of dollars more every year to host US troops if he were in the White House and called the long-time US ally a “money machine.”
Trump made those remarks less than two weeks after the US and South Korea reached a new five-year cost-sharing deal for hosting American forces on the divided peninsula. Under the agreement, South Korea will raise its share of the costs to 1.52 trillion won ($1.1 billion) in 2026, up 8.3% compared with this year.
A Pentagon spokesman was quoted in the report saying there were no policy announcements to make. National Security Council spokesman Pete Nguyen didn’t address the troop-withdrawal issue but said Trump was committed to the “complete denuclearization” of North Korea, while South Korea’s defense ministry declined to comment, according to the report. Trump said in April that he discussed trade deficit, shipbuilding cooperation, the Alaska pipeline project and defense cost sharing during his phone call with Korea’s then Acting President Han Duck-soo.
