US considers withdrawing thousands of troops from S. Korea: report

This photo, taken on Sept. 1, 2023, show U.S. troops engaging in military drills in Janseong, 250 kilometers south of Seoul. Yonhap

WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump's administration is considering withdrawing thousands of U.S. troops from South Korea and moving them to other locations in the Indo-Pacific, including Guam, a news report said Thursday.

It is weighing the idea of pulling out roughly 4,500 troops — part of the 28,500-strong U.S. Forces Korea (USFK), The Wall Street Journal reported, citing unnamed defense officials — a move that could add to security concerns in South Korea in the midst of persistent North Korean threats.

The idea is being prepared for consideration by the U.S. president as part of an informal policy review on how to address Pyongyang, the defense officials were quoted by the newspaper as saying.

A Pentagon spokesperson told Yonhap News Agency that there are no policy announcements to make regarding any potential USFK troop reduction.

The idea came amid speculation that the Trump administration could pursue greater "strategic flexibility" of American troops stationed in South Korea to keep an assertive China in check and to encourage South Korea to assume a greater share of its own defense burden.

During a Senate hearing last month, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command Commander Adm. Samuel Paparo Jr. and USFK Commander Gen. Xavier Brunson presented negative views about the idea of a USFK troop drawdown

Paparo warned the withdrawal or reduction of American troops from Korea would raise a "higher" likelihood of a North Korean invasion, while Brunson stressed that a troop reduction would be "problematic."

"With the loss of the force on the Korean Peninsula, there's a higher probability that he (North Korea) would invade," Paparo said

Brunson affirmed the importance of maintaining USFK troops.

"What we do provide there is the potential to impose cost in the East Sea to Russia, the potential to impose costs in the West Sea to China, and to continue to deter against North Korea, as it currently stands," Brunson said.

"I'm trying to focus right now on the capabilities necessary to do all those things that we might participate routinely in the campaign ..., which is to prepare, deter and then prevail in conflict should it come. But the forces in Korea play an important role. In over 75 years, they've done the same."

As Trump has been charging ahead with his "America First" agenda, speculation has persisted that his administration could consider a USFK troop cut as the agenda might involve a scaling back of the U.S.' costly overseas military involvement.

Under Secretary of Defense Elbridge Colby has advocated for a USFK overhaul to focus more on handling Chinese threats — a move that some observers said could foreshadow a potential change in USFK mission or makeup.

"U.S. forces on the peninsula in my view should not be held hostage to dealing with the North Korean problem because that is not the primary issue for the U.S.," Colby said in an interview with Yonhap News Agency in May last year. "The U.S. should be focused on China and the defense of South Korea from China over time."

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has tasked Colby with crafting a new National Defense Strategy to prioritize deterring growing Chinese threats and increase "burden sharing" by allies.

If realized, a USFK troop cut could trigger controversy in South Korea as it could be construed as a sign of America's diminished commitment to the defense of South Korea, a core treaty ally of the U.S.

Seoul has been seeking to deepen security cooperation with the U.S. and trilateral cooperation with Japan as Pyongyang appears to be advancing in its nuclear and missile programs against the backdrop of its deepening military alignment with Moscow.