Our dangerous muddle in North Korea.(withdrawal of troops )

Time For An Amicable Divorce With South Korea

By Daniel Kennelly

Last October, the Pentagon announced plans to withdraw about a third of our troops from South Korea, and reposition the rest far away from the border that divides communist North from democratic South. In the heat of eleventh-hour Presidential politics, John Kerry lambasted George W. Bush for sending a message of weakness to North Korea. In fact, it was exactly the opposite. Repositioning and trimming our troops in South Korea is a signal that we are preparing seriously to deal with the danger posed by North Korean tyrant Kim Jong Il.

Though Mr. Kerry misunderstood the signal, both Pyongyang and Seoul received it loud and clear. The Korean Central News Agency (the ministry in charge of government doublespeak in Kim Jong Il's regime) released a statement about the American move that, for once, was mostly true:

 
   The U.S. claims that this action is aimed to fill up a vacuum 
   caused by the cutdown of U.S. troops. But this is, in 
   fact, nothing but a reckless measure for putting into practice 
   its scenario for another war.... The massive redeployment 
   of the U.S. troops in and around South Korea is in 
   pursuance of the U.S. war strategy to wage a blitz warfare 
   in Korea through a preemptive attack. 

South Korea's reaction to the U.S. announcement was also out of character. The current government in Seoul is the most anti-American in the short history of the Republic of Korea. It is a left-wing administration that has fanned public sentiment against U.S. troops. Yet suddenly this government issued statements making it clear it wanted to keep the U.S. garrison in place more than the Americans themselves did.

Was South Korea suffering a spasm of nostalgia for the good old days of the U.S.-ROK alliance? Were they suddenly scared that they would be left defenseless before North Korea's million-man army? In fact, South Korea got the jitters primarily because it feared the move was an indication that the U.S. might confront the North--"forcefully" if necessary--over its nuclear weapons program. Moving U.S. troops away from the DMZ tripwire, and out of the reach of North Korea's artillery and tactical missiles, is a sensible move if hostilities might be on the way.