The United States plans to cut its troops in the Republic of Korea (ROK) by a third by the end of next year, a ROK Foreign Ministry official said Monday.

Although the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)'s 1.1-million-strong armed forces dwarf the US contingent of 37,500 troops, any reduction is closely watched because its symbolic deterrent value outweighs its numerical strength. The ROK has 690,000 troops.

"US officials told us last night that under their Global Defense Posture Review they are planning to reduce the number of US troops here by 12,500 by the end of December 2005," Kim Sook, head of the Foreign Ministry's North America Bureau, told reporters.

Kim was briefing reporters after a first day of separate talks with US officials on relocating US troops away from front-line positions near the Demilitarised Zone border with the DPRK.

That figure would include 3,600 US soldiers already earmarked for deployment to Iraq from the ROK.

Asked whether the ROK had agreed to the pullout timescale, Kim said: "That is what the United States presented as their plan and were going to discuss it from now on."

Kim said the US officials had said Washington would pursue the reduction very carefully because of the security conditions on the Korean Peninsula.

He said the United States welcomed Seoul's plans for a more independent defense and would actively help the ROK with that.

Wi Sung-lac, a National Security Council adviser, told reporters the ROK had yet to find out what US forces would be moved from where under the proposed reduction. There were no formal talks on this during the meetings on troops being relocated within the ROK.

(China Daily via agencies, June 8, 2004)