Trump administration weighs troop cut in South Korea

The Pentagon has presented the White House with options to reduce the American military presence in South Korea as the two countries remain at odds over President Trump’s demand that Seoul greatly increase how much it pays for the U.S. troops stationed in the country, U.S. officials said.

The Pentagon’s Joint Staff has reviewed the structure of U.S. forces in South Korea as part of a broader re-examination of how to reposition and potentially reduce military deployments world-wide, a U.S. military official said.

Trump administration officials declined to spell out contingency plans to shrink the American military presence in South Korea below the current level of 28,500 U.S. troops and said no decision to reduce the force has been made…

Earlier this month, Gen. Robert Abrams, the commander of U.S. forces in South Korea, described reports that the U.S. might withdraw troops from South Korea as wildly speculative, while noting that the Pentagon continuously assesses the U.S. military’s deployments globally.