LOC11:45
08:45 GMT
TOKYO, Nov 21 (KUNA) -- The US has reaffirmed its commitment to maintain the current level of US troops in South Korea, Seoul's Defense Ministry said Thursday, according to Yonhap News Agency.
The commitment came during last week's annual defense ministers' meeting, the report said.
It was the ministry's response to some media reports that the US is considering bringing a brigade home from the South if Seoul refuses to accept a fivefold increase or around USD five billion per year, in the upkeep of the US Forces Korea (USFK).
Negotiations are under way between the allies to renew the Special Measures Agreement that stipulates their sharing of the cost for maintaining the 28,500-strong American troops.
On Tuesday, the two sides cut short their latest round of talks as the US demanded a hefty rise in Seoul's payments by creating a new article in the accord.
"We are well aware of the reports, but it is not the official stance of the US government," Colonel Roh Jae-cheon, deputy spokesman of the ministry, was quoted as saying at a briefing in Seoul. Pointing to the Joint Communique adopted following the Security Consultative Meeting between US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and South Korea's Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo on Nov. 15 in Seoul, Roh noted the US' commitment to the continued stationing of its troops on the Korean Peninsula.
According to the joint statement, "The Minister and the Secretary noted that US forces in the ROK (South Korea) have played a critical role in maintaining peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula over the past 66 years, and reaffirmed that USFK will continue to play an important role in preventing armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula and promoting peace and stability in Northeast Asia." (end)
mk.ss