A ‘Less Intrusive’ Presence for Troops in South Korea

The United States wants to begin a dramatic realignment of its roughly 37,000 troops in South Korea as early as this year, a move that would involve pulling out of the historic garrison in Seoul where U.S. forces have been headquartered since the Korean War and moving troops away from the demilitarized zone, according to sources here and in Washington.

The realignment of this last vestige of the Cold War troop deployment has been under consideration for many years -- so long, in fact, that many observers assumed it would never take place. But recent events -- anti-American demonstrations in South Korea, a nuclear challenge by North Korea and the war in Iraq -- have given fresh impetus to the wheels of the military bureaucracy.

According to several sources, the Pentagon would now like to see the realignment started in the 2004 fiscal year, which begins in October, with a move out of the Yongsan headquarters in Seoul to be followed by a redeployment of troops near the DMZ.

“We would like to execute this as quickly as possible,” said one diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity. New South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun does not want to see any changes until the North Korean nuclear crisis is resolved. But, said the diplomat, “that timetable is probably too slow for us.”

Another source said Adm. Thomas Fargo, head of the U.S. Pacific Command, has been saying, in effect, “I’d like to be out yesterday.”

“The train is really running very quickly in the bureaucracy, but the speed is making Seoul uncomfortable,” this source said.

The concern among South Koreans is that a sudden redeployment of U.S. troops would send confusing and possibly alarming signals to North Korea during this volatile period.

A movement away from the DMZ, in particular, might make it appear that the United States is weakening its commitment to the defense of South Korea -- or alternatively, moving its troops out of harm’s way in preparation for a preemptive strike against North Korean nuclear facilities.

American officials say that there is no such ulterior motive. Rather, they say, the changes would be part of a worldwide restructuring designed to make U.S. forces more flexible and more mobile.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld is said to be particularly intent on moving the Army’s 2nd Infantry troops, who he believes no longer need to be stuck in place near the DMZ -- where they could not be readily deployed, for example, if they were needed in Iraq.

“The backdrop is that the art of warfare has changed, our capabilities have changed,” Thomas Hubbard, the U.S. ambassador to Seoul, said in an interview. “The South Koreans are stronger now, and we’ve reached a period where the South Koreans can rightly take the lead.”

Hubbard said the changes should also satisfy South Korean demands for more of a say in the military alliance.

“We recognize that the South Koreans have been calling for a more equal relationship,” added Hubbard. “We believe it is possible to take these steps jointly in a way that you are not only strengthening the relationship militarily but helping to instill a perception on the part of the Korean public that our relationship is more balanced.”

Possible Missile Test

Tensions remained high in South Korea over the North’s development of nuclear weapons. There were conflicting reports Tuesday about whether the North Koreans had test-fired a short-range surface-to-ship missile from its east coast earlier in the day. If so, it would be the third such missile test since late February.

Roughly 18,000 U.S. troops are deployed at bases between Seoul and the DMZ, which is about 45 miles north of the capital at its closest point. Their presence dates to the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended with an armistice but no formal peace treaty, and South Koreans frequently refer to them as a “tripwire” that would trigger massive U.S. retaliation if North Korea tried to invade.

Although Rumsfeld has publicly ruminated about moving some of the troops out of South Korea entirely, a more likely scenario is that they would move farther south on the peninsula, trying to get as far as possible from Seoul into less congested areas.

“There is no sense of a wholesale movement out of Korea, but they [the U.S. military] want a less intrusive and more sustainable presence,” said Derek J. Mitchell, a former Pentagon official and now an analyst with the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

“For the Koreans, this is like the old saying that you should be careful what you wish for or you’ll get it,” he said. “They will end up having more responsibility for their own defense.”

South Korea was rocked by a wave of anti-American protests last year after a U.S. military court’s acquittal in November of two GIs who ran over two schoolgirls near the DMZ in a road accident with a mine-clearing vehicle. The demonstrations, in turn, infuriated some U.S. conservatives, who thought the South Koreans ungrateful and who started clamoring for U.S. troops to be withdrawn from the peninsula.

For the U.S. military brass, the accident reinforced a sense that the troops are operating in terrain that has become too congested for routine training and where they have become too visible.

The first step of a redeployment would most likely be a move out of the Yongsan base in Seoul, where U.S. troops have been garrisoned since the 1950s. A former headquarters of the Japanese military occupation, the base is considered an eyesore in the middle of the capital, a magnet for tawdry nightclubs, an obstacle to the public transportation system and a long-standing source of friction between the U.S. and South Korea. It’s expected that a small number of U.S. troops, who are part of the command structure, would remain.

The proposed changes were among the topics U.S. and South Korean officials discussed at a recent series of meetings. While South Korean Foreign Minister Yoon Young Kwan was in Washington last week, Adm. Fargo spent three days conferring with officials here. Richard Lawless, the deputy assistant secretary of Defense for Asian and Pacific affairs, is due in Seoul this month.

“We intend to consult very closely with the United States to make sure [any move] does not have any negative impact on the security situation,” said a South Korean government official who asked not to be quoted by name.

Lt. Gen. Cha Young Koo, South Korea’s deputy defense minister for policy, confirmed that the Pentagon wants to move as quickly as possible but said that might not be possible.

Time-Consuming

“The U.S. side wants to complete plans for the troop redeployment within the year. That’s their wish,” Cha said. “But even to move a private house, it takes months of planning, and here we are talking about relocating military facilities.”

South Korean defense analysts say that despite the advanced capabilities of the South Korean military, it still lacks much of the sophisticated equipment used by U.S. forces near the DMZ.

“If the U.S. 2nd Infantry Division is removed from the front line, it could create a power vacuum if it isn’t done carefully,” said Kim Koo Seob, a military analyst with the Korean Institute for Defense Analysis in Seoul.

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Chi Jung Nam of The Times’ Seoul Bureau contributed to this report.