The Pentagon is demanding a retraction from a South Korean newspaper that reported the United States was considering withdrawing a brigade of up to 4,000 American troops from Korea if Seoul does not accede to U.S. demands for billions more in compensation toward U.S. protection.
“There is absolutely no truth to the Chosun Ilbo report that the U.S. Department of Defense is currently considering removing any troops from the Korean Peninsula,” said Jonathan Hoffman, the Pentagon’s chief spokesman. Hoffman is traveling in the region with U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper.
“Secretary Esper was in South Korea this past week where he repeatedly reiterated our ironclad commitment to the ROK and its people,” Hoffman said in a statement issued Thursday morning Washington time.
The Korean newspaper reported the U.S. is mulling the pullout of an entire Army brigade should South Korea refuse to accept a five-fold increase in payments for the upkeep of the U.S. Forces in Korea, citing “a diplomatic source in Washington with knowledge of the negotiations.”
South Korean media have reported the U.S. is demanding $5 billion a year to help defray the cost of maintaining a presence of 28,500 U.S. troops in the country, more than five times the current reimbursement rate of just under $1 billion a year.
“News stories such as this expose the dangerous and irresponsible flaws of single anonymous source reporting,” said Hoffman. “We are demanding the Chosun Ilbo immediately retract their story.”
The disputed story feeds widespread fears in South Korea, that — despite the assurances from the Pentagon and American military leaders that the 66-year alliance between the U.S. and South Korea is “ironclad” — President Trump may cut troops levels on the peninsula because he doesn’t like the funding arrangement.
The U.S. has not confirmed the $5 billion figure, but talks over the payments broke down this week after the U.S. walked out of negotiations, saying, “the proposals that were put forward by the Korean team were not responsive to our request for fair and equitable burden-sharing.”
The South Korean paper notes that under this year’s National Defense Authorization Act, which has yet to be passed by the U.S. Congress, American force levels in Korea cannot fall below 22,000, which would still give Trump the authority to pull out 6,500 troops.
In a joint communiqué issued after meetings in Seoul last week, Esper promised there would be no U.S. troop reductions in the near future.
“Given the current security environment, the Secretary also reaffirmed the commitment to maintain the current level of the U.S. military personnel in the ROK and to enhance combat readiness,” the communiqué stated.
