By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
The U.S. government is likely to accept a request by the top American commander in South Korea to extend the length of tours by U.S. troops here and have their families accompany them, a report said Thursday.
South Korea welcomes the extended tours by U.S. forces, while some critics are worried that the family-accompanied program, along with a plan to pause the reduction of U.S. troops, would burden South Korean taxpayers.
The report said U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates will discuss the three-year, family-accompanied tour program for U.S. forces in Korea (USFK) when he visits Seoul in June.
Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is also in support of the plan, which has been pushed ahead by USFK Commander Gen. B. B. Bell, it said.
Currently, most U.S. troops here are required to serve one-year tours without their families. A USFK official said only 10 percent of the 27,000 USFK members are with their families now.
In Europe and Japan, about 75 percent of U.S. troops are accompanied by their families.
Bell has reportedly formally recommended that the Pentagon extend tour lengths in South Korea to fall in line with those in Europe and Japan and to reflect South Korea's vast transformation from ``a war ravaged country to a modern, first-world country.''
``This is not a combat zone,'' Bell was quoted by Stars and Stripes as saying earlier this year. ``It is unacceptable in the U.S. military today to have this kind of policy in place and in any way condone it.''
Bell told a Congressional hearing last month that the tour extension would help the USFK continue to meet its security responsibilities with South Korea, without ever sending a message of reduced commitment or weakness to any and all potential adversaries, including North Korea.
``Three-year, family-accompanied tours by U.S. troops could help enhance combined forces readiness, as well as build a stable environment for the presence of the USFK,'' an official of the Ministry of National Defense told reporters. ``I believe it's not appropriate to link the move to the defense cost-sharing issue.''
Plans are moving forward to relocate U.S. bases scattered in South Korea to Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, by 2012. The camp is to be modernized and tripled in size to accommodate more than 44,00 U.S. service members, their families, base workers and South Korean reinforcements.
The pause in removing 3,500 U.S. forces by the end of this year and the potential family-accompanied program, however, might require additional construction of base facilities, such as schools and hospitals, a military source said.
The United States is expected to ask South Korea to pay more for the presence of its troops and their families during forthcoming defense cost-sharing talks, he said.
Seoul currently pays about $751 million (741 billion won), or 43 percent of costs related to the USFK presence, while the United States has called on Seoul to pay more to reach the 50-50 level.