US wants to cut Korea troop numbers

The United States wants to withdraw a third of its 37,000 troops it has stationed along the Cold War’s last frontier by the end of next year, a South Korean Foreign Ministry official said today.

Washington’s request came last night as both sides prepared to open a two-day Future of the Alliance talks in Seoul, said Kim Sook, head of the South Korean Foreign Ministry’s North American bureau.

The US delegation said it wanted to withdraw some 12,500 US troops by December 2005, Kim said.

The figure would include about 3,600 already slated to be redeployed this summer from South Korea to Iraq, he added.