The top U.S. military officer has indicated that his country could move its troops from South Korea to Afghanistan in the coming years, according to a U.S. military paper.
"That's something we're looking very specifically at," Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, was quoted as saying in the weekend edition of Stars and Stripes.
"We really haven't closed on whether it's going to be one way or the other," he was quoted as telling a group of soldiers in Seoul on Oct. 22.
Mullen was in South Korea last week, accompanying U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and attending annual security meetings between the two countries. About 28,500 U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea as a deterrent against North Korea, which remains technically at war with the allies after the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce.
"The concern that gets raised with respect to rotating forces out of here is that it lessens the commitment to the alliance and the Republic of Korea, and nothing could be further from the truth," Mullen was quoted as saying.
According to Mullen and the paper, about half of the U.S. troops will be stationed with their families on two- and three-year tours in about seven to nine years under a tour normalization plan.
U.S. troops have traditionally come to South Korea on one-year tours.
Gates said last week in Seoul that he would welcome any contributions, including military ones, by South Korea to help stabilize Afghanistan, where the U.S. is considering a surge in troop deployment to fight insurgents and reconstruct the country.
