Experts say pause won’t affect security but will strengthen countries’ alliance

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Experts say pause won’t affect security but will strengthen countries’ alliance
By Ashley Rowland, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Wednesday, April 23, 2008

SEOUL — Experts on Korean politics say the agreement to pause the drawdown of U.S. troops on the peninsula is a symbolic gesture that will have little effect on security because so few troops are involved.

“I think the new (South Korean) government is trying to make a political gesture by showing they are restoring the alliance” between the two countries,” said Kim Ki-jeong, an international relations professor at Yonsei University.

Kim said South Koreans were afraid the United States had “given up” on South Korea because of the sometimes-contentious relationship it encountered with former South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun.

“It reconfirms and sends a strong message to the Korean people that the U.S. commitment to South Korea isn’t reduced,” he said.

The pause keeps about 3,000 U.S. troops in South Korea who otherwise were to be sent elsewhere by the end of the year to bring the total troop level in the country down to 25,000.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=54236