Yun plays down Kerry's remark on US military presence

By Yi Whan-woo

Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se has played down U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s remarks about the possible downsizing of the U.S military in South Korea.

“Any discussion on reducing the number of U.S. troops in South Korea should be dealt in the future when the denuclearization of North Korea is realized,” he told reporters during a visit to Washington D.C., Wednesday (local time.). “I think he meant to urge North Korea to step forward promptly for denuclearization.”

Yun and Defense Minister Han Min-koo are in the U.S. to attend the-called “2+2 meeting” with their U.S. counterparts, Kerry and Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel in the U.S. capital, Thursday.

Kerry made his remarks before flying back to Washington from Berlin where he held a joint press conference with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

“We’ve said from day one that if North Korea wants to rejoin the community of nations, it knows how to do it. It can come to the talks prepared to discuss denuclearization,” Kerry said, according to a transcript provided by the State Department. “And the U.S. is fully prepared ― if they do that and begin that process, we are prepared to begin the process of reducing the need for American forces and presence in the region because the threat itself would then be reduced.”

Kerry expressed hope for restarting the long-stalled six-party nuclear talks “in the next weeks, months perhaps.”

The six-party talks are aimed at resolving North Korea’s nuclear program peacefully. It is comprised of six countries ― the two Koreas, the U.S. China, Japan and Russia.

The talks have been stalled since the last meeting in 2008. The North has called for an unconditional resumption of the negotiations, but the U.S. demands that Pyongyang first take concrete steps demonstrating its commitment to denuclearization.

Meanwhile, U.S. State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf also played down Kerry’s remarks.

“He was restating our long-standing policy that we are focused on denuclearization of the peninsula, and obviously ... over the long term, this is part of the discussion,” she said.

“But he was not, in any way, going beyond what we've said for a very long time about what has the potential to happen here.

“North Korea has made a lot of promises in the past, but haven't lived up to them,” Harf said.

“So the ball is in their court in terms of that. And we'll see what they choose to do,” she added.