National Security Adviser John Bolton has issued a statement Friday denying that President Trump is planning to reduce the number of US troops in South Korea. Bolton referred to a New York Times report to that effect from Thursday night as “utter nonsense.”
The report said President Trump had ordered the Pentagon to prepare different options for a drawdown. This was said to be based on efforts toward a deal ending the Korean War, and the reality that 30,000 US troops wouldn’t need to be in South Korea if the war is over.
While this didn’t mean a drawdown was imminent, officials are denying the claim. Indeed, the Pentagon issued its own statement Friday saying that they’d never received any such order to make plans.
Whether that is true or not remains to be seen. It is unsurprising that the administration wouldn’t want knowledge of the drawdown planning being public ahead of a planned North Korea summit. Still, such a drawdown would be an obvious move if a peace deal is reached. Given how many plans the Pentagon is drawing up at any given time, it would be irresponsible for them not to be considering reductions of US troop levels in South Korea.
China and Russia to accept occupation of possibly a united Koreas [?tho only geographically] but deeply-split-in-two ideologically?
So, is Kim Jong-un joking or serious about wanting to live in such swamp?
Who is really our president?
Business as usual. President speaks his mind, common sense stuff, then the establishment denies and it and the status quo stays intact. Stuff like this also happened with early Obama and early Merkel. It takes a while for these new “leaders” to understand who’s in charge.
Bolton has spent his life ruining any chance of peace, harmony, cooperation, civility anywhere he is allowed to roam. One of the very worst “humans” alive.
Making Korea nuclear free will make Trump look good . It should be a real blessing for a large majority of the N Korean people too . But If the United States would also give up its nuclear weapons too that would for sure make China the most powerful country in the world the next day
I believe that people in the Pentagon are always making plans for the future even if the chance that these will be executed is small. I am sure that plans for the removal of troops from S. Korea exist and are reviewed regularly. The fact that “no order” has been given to take troops out is meaningless in that context.