By Ryu Jin
Staff Reporter

The United States told South Korea that it would withdraw 12,500 soldiers out of the 37,000-strong U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) by the end of next year, officials said on Monday.

``The U.S. proposed pulling out 12,500 soldiers, including a brigade of 3,600 to be shifted to Iraq in August, by the end of 2005,’’ Kim Sook, director general of the Foreign Ministry’s North American affairs bureau, said in a press briefing. ``This will bring down the number of U.S. troops here to 25,000.’’

The proposal to cut troops was delivered when officials from the two countries held an unannounced meeting in Seoul on Sunday, he explained.

``We just listened to the U.S. proposal in the initial contact,’’ Kim said, adding the government will deliver its position on that proposal after closely reviewing it.

The formal discussion on the proposed troop reduction was originally planned to take place on June 7 and 8 on the sidelines of the two nations’ regular military talks, known as the Future of the Alliance Policy Initiative talks, or FOTA.

Against the general expectation, however, the two sides had their first contact secretively at a certain place on Sunday evening.

Kim said the U.S. officials explained that the troop reduction is part of Washington’s global strategy to reshape its troops’ overseas presence and that it will also affect American troops in Japan and Germany.

``The U.S. officials assured that the troop realignment won’t affect the security of South Korea,’’ he said. ``They also promised to carry out the realignment while taking the security situation on the Korean Peninsula into careful consideration.’’

South Korea’s negotiation team is said to have suggested that they should have enough negotiations before reaching a conclusion since the nation needs a certain period of time to make up for possible loss in military capabilities.

Officials here said Seoul has the firm principle that the U.S. troop reduction must not weaken the ROK-U.S. combined deterrent against North Korea, and therefore wants a slower and more gradual reduction _ starting from 2007 until 2013, when its 10-year force improvement program is completed.

The three-member South Korean team includes Kim from the Foreign Ministry; Wi Sung-lak, senior policy coordinator of the National Security Council; and Army Maj. Gen. Han Min-gu, director general of international cooperation at the Defense Ministry.

U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Richard Lawless, the chief Washington delegate to the regular FOTA meeting, leads the U.S. negotiation team.

jinryu@koreatimes.co.kr