The worm has turned. I made note bout 6 weeks ago when
South Korea's new President Roh Moo-Hyun was sworn in bout him wooing all anti american voters and American youth during all the demonstrations to have us leave,and the minute times got tough and we made any mention of it he back out like a sand crab with but but but.Not only has he said he may send troops to Iraq but suddenly our alliance is NOW his top priority.
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from S Korea today
South Korea said its highest priority was maintaining its military alliance with the United States as Washington indicated it could withdraw US troops from the Korean peninsula at a day's notice.
"What takes the highest priority is for the United States to maintain its security commitment on the Korean Peninsula," said South Korea's new Foreign Minister Yoon Young-Kwan, who travels to Washington next week for talks with US counterpart Colin Powell.
A senior US defense official told South Korean correspondents in Washington Tuesday that the United States would withdraw its troops from South Korea at any time if the Seoul government requested a pullout.
"If the Korean government demanded the pullout of the US Forces Korea, the US could withdraw its troops even by tomorrow as it is the will of the Korean people," the official was quoted as saying by Yonhap, the national news agency here.
Currently 37,000 American troops are stationed in South Korea as a deterrent against possible aggression from communist North Korea.
Calls for the withdrawal of US troops accompanied massive demonstrations throughout South Korea last year sparked by the deaths of two schoolgirls in a traffic accident involving a US military vehicle.
South Korea's President Roh Moo-Hyun, a liberal former lawyer who a once called for the withdrawal of US troops, has asked for a revision of the US-South Korean alliance.
Differences between Seoul and Washington on how to handle North Korea's nuclear weapons drive have opened a rift in 50-year-old ties, which North Korea, embroiled in a five-month-long nuclear standoff with the United States, has sought to exploit.
South Korea's Roh has ruled out talks of sanctions or military action against North Korea while Washington, preparing to go to war with Iraq, has said it is keeping all options open, while seeking a peaceful end to the crisis.
"The US administration clearly understands that North Korea and Iraq are different," Yoon said in an interview with MBC TV here, adding that Washington intended to resolve the standoff peacefully.
