Telegraph | News | Third of all US troops to leave South Korea:
"The United States proposed yesterday to withdraw a third of its troops from South Korea.
A statement from US forces in Seoul said 12,500 of the 37,500 troops stationed there to counter the threat from the North would be reassigned in the next 18 months.
Redeployment of troops highlights new focus on terrorism
The move came as Australia said it was preparing to host a large American military base in Queensland or the Northern Territory.
The base would allow American forces to counter swiftly threats posed by regional terrorist groups such as Jemaah Islamiah.
Robert Hill, Australia's defence minister, discussed the plan with Donald Rumsfeld, the US defence secretary at a security conference in Singapore and said an agreement could be reached as early as next month.
'It's to enhance mutual capability, ensure inter-operability and to assist a critically important ally,' Mr Hill said yesterday.
Mr Rumsfeld sought to allay concerns that America wanted a permanent presence in Australia. 'We don't want to be in a static defence mode. We want to be in a more agile arrangement,' he said.
Washington has said that South-East Asia is its second front in the war on terrorism.
South-East Asian countries, in particular Indonesia, are likely to react nervously to the idea of a US base in Australia, amid growing unease that Canberra sees itself as Washington's 'deputy sheriff' in the region."
"The United States proposed yesterday to withdraw a third of its troops from South Korea.
A statement from US forces in Seoul said 12,500 of the 37,500 troops stationed there to counter the threat from the North would be reassigned in the next 18 months.
Redeployment of troops highlights new focus on terrorism
The move came as Australia said it was preparing to host a large American military base in Queensland or the Northern Territory.
The base would allow American forces to counter swiftly threats posed by regional terrorist groups such as Jemaah Islamiah.
Robert Hill, Australia's defence minister, discussed the plan with Donald Rumsfeld, the US defence secretary at a security conference in Singapore and said an agreement could be reached as early as next month.
'It's to enhance mutual capability, ensure inter-operability and to assist a critically important ally,' Mr Hill said yesterday.
Mr Rumsfeld sought to allay concerns that America wanted a permanent presence in Australia. 'We don't want to be in a static defence mode. We want to be in a more agile arrangement,' he said.
Washington has said that South-East Asia is its second front in the war on terrorism.
South-East Asian countries, in particular Indonesia, are likely to react nervously to the idea of a US base in Australia, amid growing unease that Canberra sees itself as Washington's 'deputy sheriff' in the region."
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