Tokyo Wary of Trump Hope to Pull U.S. Soldiers from S. Korea

June 14, 2018

Tokyo- A sense of alarm spread within the Japanese government after U.S. President Donald Trump Tuesday mentioned his wish to pull U.S. soldiers out of South Korea.

The Trump remarks prompted Japanese Defense Ministry officials to rush to gather information about the president's true intentions and confirm the U.S. Defense Department's views.

At a news conference following his closely watched summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore, Trump denied that his agreement with Kim included a reduction in the U.S. military capability in South Korea.

He said, however: "At some point, I have to be honest...I want to get our soldiers out. I want to bring our soldiers back home." He added: "But that's not part of the equation right now. At some point, I hope it will be, but not right now."

Speaking to reporters in Tokyo on Wednesday, Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera underscored the significance of U.S. forces in South Korea, as well as in Japan.

"U.S. Forces Korea and U.S. Forces Japan are playing significant security roles at a time when East Asia faces many uncertainties," Onodera said.

About 28,000 U.S. soldiers, mainly army troops and airmen, are currently stationed in South Korea.

"U.S. Forces Korea has not just deterred North Korea from beginning a major armed conflict but blocked China's influence from penetrating to the South," a senior Japanese Defense Ministry official said. "These functions could weaken if its capabilities are reduced."

The official is worried that, if the U.S. military withdraws from the Korean Peninsula, its defense front line would move back from the current inter-Korean demilitarized zone at 38 degrees north latitude to the Tsushima Strait between Japan and South Korea.

The island of Tsushima in the southwestern Japan prefecture of Nagasaki is only about 50 kilometers from the southern South Korean city of Busan. Japanese Self-Defense Forces units deployed on the island are not necessarily large in size at present, mainly tasked with surveillance and information gathering.

If a reduction in U.S. forces in South Korea or their pullout becomes reality, SDF units in the Kyushu region facing the Korean Peninsula across the strait, including those at the Maritime SDF's Sasebo base in Nagasaki and the Air SDF's Tsuiki base in neighboring Fukuoka Prefecture, could face heavier burdens, such as more surveillance operations and fighter scrambles, observers said.

Meanwhile, U.S. Forces Japan, which is now about 55,000-strong, is working on plans to reduce the base-hosting burden of Okinawa Prefecture, including through a transfer of marines to Guam.

If U.S. Forces Korea is downsized in the future, however, "The U.S. military could strengthen the prepositioning and command functions at its bases in Japan in order to deploy troops swiftly from the U.S. mainland during an emergency, without increasing the number of troops stationed in Japan," a GSDF source said. Jiji Press