National security adviser John Bolton said Friday that a New York Times article claiming President Trump asked the Pentagon to look into reducing U.S. forces in South Korea is “nonsense.”
[Trump sets in motion plans for pulling American troops out of South Korea: Report]
“The New York Times story is utter nonsense,” Bolton said. “The President has not asked the Pentagon to provide options for reducing American forces stationed in South Korea.”
The story from late Thursday said that according to officials briefed on deliberations, Trump ordered the Pentagon to draw up options to scale back the amount of U.S. troops in South Korea, in preparation for his summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
The Pentagon also denied that such a request had been made.
“The New York Times story is false. The President has not asked the Pentagon to provide options for reducing American forces stationed in South Korea,” said Lt. Col. Christopher Logan, a Defense Department spokesman. “The Department of Defense’s mission in South Korea remains the same, and our force posture has not changed. The Department of Defense remains committed to supporting the maximum pressure campaign, developing and maintaining military options for the President, and reinforcing our ironclad security commitment with our allies. We all remain committed to complete, verifiable, and irreversible denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.”
That summit is expected in the next few weeks, but unnamed sources in the Times article said troop reduction options were not meant to be a bargaining chip for that meeting.
The U.S. has stationed 28,500 troops in South Korea, and the article reported that Trump believes the treaty between the North and South reduces the need for the current scale of military presence in the region.
Kim has told South Korea he would be dropping his repeated pleas that the U.S. pull troops from the Korean Peninsula.
