Washington
\nThe Pentagon foresees a \u201cmore limited\u201d role in deterring North Korea, with South Korea taking primary responsibility, according to a policy document released on Friday, a move that could lead to a reduction of U.S. forces on the Korean Peninsula.
\nSouth Korea hosts about 28,500 U.S. troops in combined defense against North Korea\u2019s military threat, and Seoul has raised its defense budget by 7.5% for this year.
\n\u201cSouth Korea is capable of taking primary responsibility for deterring North Korea with critical but more limited U.S. support,\u201d the Pentagon said in the 25-page National Defense Strategy document that guides its policies.
\n\u201cThis shift in the balance of responsibility is consistent with America\u2019s interest in updating U.S. force posture on the Korean Peninsula.\u201d<\/p>\n
SHIFT BY TRUMP TO FOCUS ON U.S. HOMELAND DEFENSE
\nIn recent years, U.S. officials have signaled a desire to make U.S. forces in South Korea more flexible, to potentially operate outside the Korean Peninsula in response to a broader range of threats, such as in defending Taiwan and checking China\u2019s growing military reach.
\nSouth Korea has resisted the idea of shifting the role of U.S. troops but has worked to grow its defense capabilities in the past 20 years, with the goal of being able to take on the wartime command of combined U.S. and South Korean forces. South Korea has 450,000 troops.
\nIts Defense Ministry said the U.S. military based in the country is the \u201ccore\u201d of the alliance that has deterred North Korean aggression and ensured peace on the peninsula and the region.
\n\u201cWe will be cooperating closely with the U.S. to continue developing it in that direction,\u201d it said.
\nNorth Korea routinely criticizes the U.S. military presence in South Korea and joint drills – which the allies say are defensive – as dress rehearsals for invasion against it driven by what it calls Washington\u2019s hegemonic zeal.
\nThe Pentagon\u2019s top policy official, Elbridge Colby, is due to travel to Asia next week and is expected to visit South Korea, a U.S. official said.
\nThe wide-ranging document, which each new administration publishes, said the Pentagon\u2019s priority was defending the homeland. In the Indo-Pacific region, the document said, the Pentagon was focused on ensuring that China could not dominate the United States or U.S. allies.
\n\u201cThis does not require regime change or some other existential struggle. Rather, a decent peace, on terms favorable to Americans but that China can also accept and live under, is possible,\u201d the document said, without mentioning Taiwan by name.
\nChina, which describes Taiwan as the most important and sensitive topic in its relations with the United States, claims democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory and has not ruled out the use of force to take control of the island. Taiwan rejects Beijing\u2019s sovereignty claims and says only the people of Taiwan can decide their future.
\nChina\u2019s defense ministry has repeatedly said that resolving \u201cthe Taiwan question\u201d was a Chinese matter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Washington The Pentagon foresees a \u201cmore limited\u201d role in deterring North Korea, with South Korea taking primary responsibility, according to a policy document released on Friday, a move that could lead to a reduction of U.S. forces on the Korean Peninsula. South Korea hosts about 28,500 U.S. troops in combined defense against North Korea\u2019s military […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":527544,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-527517","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n