The defense ministers of South Korea and the United States wrapped up their annual meeting in Seoul Monday without making any concrete progress on the key issues of South Korea sending troops to Iraq and realignment of US troops in South Korea.  

After their Security Consultative Meeting (SCM), visiting US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and his South Korean counterpart Cho Young-kil issued a joint statement over issues of mutual concern which disappointed some local political parties and government officials.

The biggest opposition the Grand National Party (GNP) and the United Liberal Democratics described the SCM as "failure."

"The two sides seemed to have taken a very careful approach in light of each other's public opinion and needs," said a South Korean official.

In the statement, Rumsfeld expressed appreciation for South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun's announcement to send additional troops to Iraq to help the US-led reconstruction in the war-torn country.

On Roh's recent decision of sending no more than 3,000 South Korean troops to Iraq, the US defense chief reiterated that "It is up to South Korea to make decision."

It was reported that Seoul's offer of 3,000 troops, most which are non-combatants, failed to meet the demand of Washington, which hoped South Korea to dispatch larger additional troops most of which are combatants.

Sending troops to Iraq has been a hot issue in South Korea. After South Korea sent 675 non-combatants to Iraq in May, the country has been experiencing frequent anti-war rallies nationwide.

Roh's administration is yet to announce the number, nature, departure date as well as deployment location of the proposed Iraq-bound troops as it takes a cautious manner over the issue.

There are also concerns here that if the two sides fail to narrow their differences over the troops dispatch issue, Washington will toughen its position over the relocation of the US Forces Korea (USFK).

The two allies had agreed to relocate the USFK headquarters in Seoul, the 2nd Infantry Division now deployed near the inter-Korean border as well US bases in South Korea in the coming years.

Although the two defense chiefs pledged in their joint statement to carry on such readjustment in the future, they failed to reach any agreement over all the pending issues.

Washington and Seoul still have many differences over the realignment of the 37,000-strong US military forces here, such as the timing, sites of the relocation.

Before Rumsfeld's visit, he said in Washington that one of his top topics in the SCM would be possible reduction of US troops in South Korea. However, at a joint news conference held after the SCM, Cho Young-kil said they "did not talk about such a issue during the meeting."

"Further discussions are needed, and we will make final decision at the end of this year," said Cho.

(Xinhua News Agency November 18, 2003)