S. Korea President: 'No US troops in S. Korea in a decade'

Straits Times ^

[DeaconBenjamin]

SEOUL - President-elect Roh Moo Hyun has suggested that the tens of thousands of US troops in the country since the 1950-53 war could be gone within as little as a decade, giving Seoul responsibility for its own defence.

Facing North-Korea's one-million strong army, South Korea's military is not unprepared, said Mr Roh.

Mr Roh tapped anti-American sentiment as he swept to victory on a manifesto that backed his mentor's 'sunshine policy' of engaging communist North Korea.

'Although we don't know if it might take 10, 20 or 30 years, someone has to consider an independent defence,' Mr Roh told the Seoul International Forum, published in Choongang Ilbo newspaper.

South Korea, which faces North Korea's one-million strong army across the world's most heavily fortified border, was not unprepared, he said.

'Senior military officials have to prepare a plan for a special emergency situation on the Korean peninsula when the US army moves away,' he said

His remarks come amid a growing chorus of calls from conservative US politicians and think-tanks that it may be time to remove the 37,000 US troops in South Korea.

Meanwhile, US business circles have expressed strong complaints over the growing anti-American sentiment, threatening to cut their Korea-bound investments and halt bilateral cooperation projects, the Federation of Korean Industries said yesterday.

It said it has received a letter of protest from the US Chamber of Commerce, containing deep grievances against the spread of hostility towards the United States.

The letter warned the anti-US actions, complicated by the nuclear crisis, could prompt US investors to boycott Korea. --Reuters, Korea Herald/ Asia News Network

[Angelus Errare]

At this rate, there won't be any South Korea left within a decade.

[PhiKapMom]

What a jerk! There will be one Korea -- all run by the North. If we get tossed out, hope we level everything that we had over there to keep the communist from getting it!

[Mo1]

Is this idiot for real??

[ApesForEvolution]

'Although we don't know if it might take 10, 20 or 30 years, someone has to consider an independent defence,'

Fine with me. However, the RoK's current defense stance seems to be the 'Jimma Cahter' style and we are responsible for our own security interests regarding the Northcomms and nuclear proliferation/bribery.

[Phil V.]

I suggest that we tell Mr, Moo to begin by moooooving his guys to the front while we mooooove our guys south to Pusan.

[Consort]

Roh, Roh, Roh your boat gently down the stream....

[ApesForEvolution]

China is behind all of this and needs to face economic pain...why we are, in essence, strengthening our biggest enemy (Red Chinese/Russian alliance) and not dealing with them here and now will be our eventual end.

[NormsRevenge]

DEAL!!!

[MissAmericanPie]

Bring our troops home and protect our own borders. They should bring them home from the Balkins and let those people kill the Muslims threatening them. We should get out of Germany while we are at it, let Europe worry about Europe's defense.

[EaglesUpForever]

Well put. You sound like Michael Savage...

[exit82]

Well said. Makes a lot of sense to me.

[cynicom]

Decade hell....Do it yesterday, sooner the better. Let the North Koreans have them.

[Anti-Bubba182]

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[DarkWaters]

No doubt about it, but in the noise the truth is lost. People do their best to fix up a bad image. Rather than facing the truth in full, they opt for a more appealing view that doesn't hurt their sense or should I say hurt their understanding of the real world.

[Consort]

Seiul

[Austin Willard Wright]

Well put! Bring home the troops and focus on homeland defense! As Brazil, Venzuela, Iraq, Korea head into a crisis and an orgy of U.S. bashing., the Wilsonians still naively believe that they can wave a magic wand and fight an unlimited number of wars at the same time. In the face of recent events, their continued faith in their world policing mantra is shown to be hopelessly utopian.

[RobFromGa]

I am not a military expert, so this all could be really idiotic, but...

I think that we should begin troop withdrawal from South Korea fairly soon. Our strength is our ability to project force in a flexible manner. Fixed vulnerable troops are not a good idea in such a hotspot, IMHO.

We are massively outnumbered in an unsupported ground war on the Korean Peninsula and sufficient support would take to long to deploy. We need to pull back and let South Koreans defend the border against the EVIL EMPIRE of North Korea. We can help from a safer distance.

[gaijin]

America defended West Germans against East Germans. We spent oodles of diplomatic capital keeping Indians from tangling with Pakistanis. We staved off the Russians from threatening Japan. We kept South Koreans safe from North Koreans, and assuaged the fears of both these from the prospect a newly re-militarized Japan.

Granted this was not a pure form of philanthropy; lots of initiatives were in our own selfish interests. But come on -- everyone has their own petty misgivings, and it is just not sustainable for America to go around protecting the whole world from some other part of the world.

Let's not be spiteful about bringing our troops home from South Korea, but neither should fail to hear what they're telling us:

1. Korean problems are best entrusted to Korean folks.
2. Yankee go home.

If we're putting off their warm family reunion, then by all means let's help them set the table....

[Howlin]

Why wait?