US Defence Secretary to Visit South Korea for Talks on Reshaping Alliance
Excerpt from report in English by South Korean news agency Yonhap
Seoul, 18 October: US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld will fly to Seoul this week for talks on South Korea’s moves to assume a greater role in defending itself from communist North Korea, Seoul officials said Tuesday [18 October]. Rumsfeld, currently visiting China on the first leg of a five-nation Asian trip, is scheduled to visit South Korea from Thursday through Saturday in his second trip to the major US ally since taking office in 2001, Seoul’s Defence Ministry said in a statement. In Seoul, Rumsfeld is to attend annual defence ministerial consultations with his South Korean counterpart Yoon Kwang-woong on Friday, the statement said.
High on the agenda for the one-day meeting will be South Korea’s moves to regain full operational control of its troops from the US military and take over major security roles from the American forces, it said. “The two sides will discuss joint research into a ‘vision for the future Korea-US alliance’ and the need to push for consultations on the Korea-US command systems, including the wartime operational control,” the statement said. [passage omitted]
“When it comes to the Korea-US alliance, South Korea has received help from the US But the two sides have found common ground to seek the transformation of the ties to more balanced, reciprocal relations, in which South Korea, if necessary, could give some help to the US and the two sides can engage in greater give and take,” said Jeon Je-kuk, a senior international relations officer at the Defence Ministry. Earlier this week, Rumsfeld also confirmed impending changes in the South Korea-US alliance, forged in blood during the Korean War.
“As Korea has changed, so has the nature of our relationship. While America maintains its commitment to South Korea’s defence, the United States will increasingly take on a supporting role – in the years ahead – acting not as a patron, but as a partner and a supporter,” Rumsfeld said in a contribution to the Wall Street Journal published on Monday.
Rumsfeld is seeking to expand the role of its troops in South Korea beyond the peninsula under a global troop repositioning plan aimed at dealing with new security threats such as terrorism and rogue states. The plan, dubbed “strategic flexibility”, calls for forward-deployed US troops in South Korea to be moved to an expanded facility south of Seoul and to cut the US troop level here to 25,000 by 2008.
The issue, not included on the official agenda for Friday’s defence talks, is expected to be discussed in private meetings between Rumsfeld and Yoon, Seoul officials said. The foreign ministers of the two countries have been assigned to mainly discuss the matter.
The annual talks, the Security Consultative Meeting [SCM], will also deal with joint efforts to prevent possible terrorist strikes during November’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in South Korea, the ministry statement said. Leaders of 21 countries in the region, such as the US and Japan, are to attend the 18-19 November APEC summit.
On the eve of the SCM, the 37th of its kind, chairmen of the two countries’ joint chiefs of staff (JCS) will hold a forum on North Korea’s military and their combined deterrence. But the chairman of the US JCS, Gen Peter Pace, will not attend the meeting and Gen Leon J. LaPorte, chief of the US military in South Korea, will instead take part in the forum on his behalf. During his Seoul trip, Rumsfeld is also to meet with President Roh, Foreign Minister Ban Ki- moon and other top officials. The US defence secretary is scheduled to travel on to Mongolia, Kazakhstan and Lithuania after departing South Korea.