SEOUL – South Korea’s defence ministry said on May 23 that Seoul and Washington had not had discussions about the withdrawal of some US troops stationed in the country.
The ministry made the comment in response to a report by the Wall Street Journal that said the US was considering pulling out roughly 4,500 troops from South Korea, a move that could further stir security concerns in the region.
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 WSJ report, citing people familiar with the matter, added.
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.
Mr Trump has pushed US allies to step up military spending in return for deploying American troops in conflict zones.
In October 2024, just before winning the presidential election, Mr 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”.
Mr 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 (S$1.42 billion) in 2026, up 8.3 per cent compared with 2025.
A Pentagon spokesman was quoted in the report saying there were no policy announcements to make.
National Security Council spokesman Pete Nguyen did not address the troop-withdrawal issue but said Mr Trump was committed to the “complete denuclearisation” of North Korea, while South Korea’s Defence Ministry declined to comment, according to the report.
Mr Trump said in April that he discussed trade deficit, shipbuilding cooperation, the Alaska pipeline project and defence cost sharing during his phone call with Korea’s then Acting President Han Duck-soo. BLOOMBERG, REUTERS
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