South Korea, US start new talks on alliance future
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-02-03 13:44

South Korea and the United States opened new talks aimed at reshaping their half-century-old military alliance, moves that have sparked security jitters here.

The talks addressed the sensitive issue of expanding the role of US troops stationed in South Korea from deterrence against North Korea to a regional rapid redeployment force, Yonhap news agency said.

The defense ministry said only that the talks focused on relocation of US bases here, US troop reductions and South Korea's increased responsibility for its own defense.

U.S. Deputy Undersecretary of Defense Richard Lawless (L) and his South Korean counterpart Ahn Kwang-chan shake hands during a meeting at the Defense Ministry in Seoul February 3, 2005. The United States and South Korea opened talks on a U.S. plan to reposition forces and withdraw up to a third of the 37,000 U.S. troops stationed near the Cold War's last frontier. [Reuters]

"The talks are aimed at drawing up a blueprint for the alliance in the lead-up to the reunification (of the Korean peninsula)," said Ahn Kwang-Chan, policy director of the defence ministry and chief South Korean delegate to the so-called Security Policy Initiative (SPI) talks.

He told journalists that the blueprint would take into account "future inter-Korean ties and changes to the security situation on the Korean peninsula and its surrounding areas."

The talks are a follow-up to the Future of the Alliance consultation between Seoul and Washington that began in early 2002 and continued until late last year.

Delegates are expected to meet every two months for negotiations expected to take up to two years, Ahn said. The US side is represented by deputy under secretary of defence, Richard Lawless.

The United States has announced a plan to move most US troops away from the frontline with North Korea to Pyeongtaek, 70 kilometers (43 miles) south of Seoul, by 2008.

The number of US troops in South Korea dropped from 37,500 to 32,500 last year. Some 3,600 troops were re-deployed to Iraq, while 1,400 more left by the end of last year.

A further 5,000 troops are scheduled to quit the country in 2005-2006 and another 2,500 by 2008.

Any move to give US troops based here a regional role would place the country at the center of regional disputes, some politians and civic groups argue.

Kwon Young-Kil, lawmaker of the liberal Democratic Labor Party, said South Korean security could be compromised.

"If the United States expands the role of the US forces to contain China, China would respond to it and military tensions would rise on the Korean peninsula and the region," he said.

Some 30 representatives from four activists' groups, including the Solidarity for Peace and Reunification of Korea, rallied outside the defence ministry here where SPI talks got underway.

"We strongly urge the government to reject the unjust US demand to expand the role of the US forces and switch the bilateral military alliance to regional defence alliance," said a statement.

"This is not only harmful to our security but to the economy as well because China is South Korea's largest trading partner," said a spokesman of the Solidarity for Peace and Reunification of Korea.

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