As the diary writes, the Pentagon prepares an option assuming a displacement of 4.5 thousand. soldiers, among others on the American island of Guam in the Pacific and other places of the Indo-Pacific region. This idea is prepared to consider the president as part of the “informal policy review towards North Korea”.
The newspaper reserves that this is only one of the options considered, and Pentagon announced that no decisions were made. In April, the US troops in Asia warned against reducing forces in Korea, claiming during speeches in Congress that this would weaken the US abilities in potential conflicts with North Korea, China or Russia.
Donald Trump previously expressed the desire to withdraw troops from South Korea.
“WSJ” notes, however, that Trump already in the first term of office expressed the desire to withdraw troops from South Korea, forcing Seoul to increase their participation in the costs of stationing soldiers. Currently, there are about 28.5 thousand of them.
Cited by the Journal American officials say that the decision on the number of troops will not be made until “there is no more clarity about the direction of war in Ukraine and whether the administration will continue to support sticks militarily”.
The newspaper estimates that potential withdrawals of troops from South Korea would probably cause anxiety throughout the Indo-Pacific region.
