Is Donald Trump Considering ‘Drawing Down’ Troops in South Korea?

US President Donald Trump, according to a report by New York Times, has ordered the Pentagon “to prepare options for drawing down American troops in South Korea.” This comes barely a week after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in released a joint statement affirming their commitment to pursuing the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula and a formal end to the war.

It is not clear whether Trump is considering a partial or a full withdrawal of the 28,500 U.S troops, though the latter is unlikely. North Korea, which had consistently maintained that denuclearization was contingent on the removal of U.S troops from South Korea, reportedly recently dropped this demand and sought security assurances instead.

There is significant opposition to US military presence within South Korea too. This was reflected in the form of large protests last year against the deployment of THAAD missiles in the country. This was seen by many South Koreans as another instance of the US using their country for its own broader ambitions in the region.

While insisting that this move by Trump was not intended as a bargaining chip weeks ahead of a meeting with Kim, US officials acknowledged to The New York Times that a peace treaty between the two Koreas would render the presence of the US soldiers in South Korea unnecessary.

Earlier this week, Moon Chung-in, an adviser of the South Korean President, asked, “What will happen to US forces in South Korea if a peace treaty is signed? It will be difficult to justify their continuing presence.”

However, the South Korean President’s office has refuted the claim that the US is considering a troop reduction. The denial came in a statement released today, according to which a US National Security Council official told the Chief of South Korea’s National Security Council that the New York Times report was “not true at all”, the CNN reported. There are been no official denial or confirmation by the US administration about the claims in the report.

Trump’s rationale for withdrawing or downsizing the US presence in South Korea has been that the latter has not adequately compensated the US for the cost of maintaining the troops. The agreement under which South Korea Korea has been paying 50% of the cost for the upkeep of American soldiers in the country - which adds up to more than $800 million per year - will expire at the end of the year. The Trump administration is reportedly demanding that South Korea pay the full cost of maintaining the American soldiers.  

However, the Pentagon and senior defence officials seem to differ. Back in 2016, the top US commander in South Korea categorically stated that it was cheaper to retain the US troops in South Korea than bring them back. This was because in addition to the 50% of maintenance costs, South Korea is also bearing 92% of the $10.8 billion project for base relocation in Korea, which, Army Gen. Vincent Brooks has said, is "the largest (Pentagon) construction project we have anywhere in the world."

Seconding Brooks’ assessment, Zack Cooper from the Center for Strategic and International Studies told the CNN "If you were to shift US forces currently in Japan and Korea back to the US you would have to place them somewhere, and those facilities are fairly expensive to build and maintain."