U.S. to Pull Out of Key Outpost Along Tense Border With North Korea

[NNN0LHI]

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGA0I34PZSD.html

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - The U.S. military will relinquish a key outpost along the tense frontier with North Korea this year as part of a force reshuffle on the divided Korean Peninsula, a U.S. military official said Tuesday.

The turnover of Observation Post Ouellette, a dusty crag with a view deep into North Korea, means that U.S. troops will no longer patrol the tense border, except for a small contingent at the truce village of Panmunjom.

Duties along the heavily fortified buffer area, called the Demilitarized Zone, will be handed over to South Korea, which has a 600,000-member military staring off against North Korea's armed forces, the world's fifth largest with 1.1 million soldiers.

The two sides are separated by the 2 1/2-mile wide, 151-mile long DMZ, a Cold War vestige strewn with mines and laced with barbed wire and tank traps.

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[Media_Lies_Daily]

1. Sounds to me like this may be a NeoCon attempt to lure NK into...

...making an attack against the weaker SK forces. If NK invaded SK, and if I'm reading the NeoCon strategy correctly, the NeoCons would feel justified in doing whatever it took to eliminate NK as a current and future threat. With the shortage of U. S. military manpower, using nukes is rapidly moving up the list of U. S. military options.

[RoyGBiv]

2. Did you see?

Did you see the story about a Pakistani nuclear scientist confirming that the N Korean's had at least a few nuclear devices? By PNAC reasoning, that's justification right there.

[Muddleoftheroad]

3. You know what American troops have called themselves

In that location? A "speed bump." Nothing more. Why should U.S. troops be the frontline soldiers defending South Korea?

[teryang]

5. Because we are obligated to do so

...under our treaty commitments with Japan and S.Korea. American presence in Korea began as an honest broker policy over a century ago. When the policy was abandoned in a deal with Japan in 1905 (?) it set the wheels of the Japanese invasion of the mainland in motion. Korea was annexed in 1911 and a reign of terror began which didn't end until 1945.

I suppose we could just let, the Koreans, China, Japan and Russia just go at it.

[Muddleoftheroad]

6. I said "frontline"

Do those treaty commitments obligate us to put our troops in the "speed bump" spot?

Ultimately, I do think we should pull out of South Korea. I don't think they need us to prevent the north from invading and certainly not to protect them from Japan. In the meantime, redeploying us away from the border seems prudent.

[teryang]

7. The troops have to remain north of Seoul

...or their presence is virtually meaningless. Now perhaps a move from Tonduchan to other locations is desirable, it did appear vulnerable to me. I would maintain the threat of movement to cut off lines behind a northern offensive rather than just sitting in front of an advance to be rolled over.

While I think the S. Korean army is viable against the North for many reasons, our guaranteed involvement in such a conflict is a message to the other Asian great powers, rather than N.Korea alone. A North Korean invasion would stall at the Han River. But then most of Seoul would be gone. Since destroying Seoul is the only card N.Korea can play we must remain north of Seoul. To yield this position is politically very unwise. It sends all the wrong signals. The first is that you are anticipating a war, yielding Seoul and that you don't believe in your own deterrence.

If the adjacent great powers could work out some security arrangement for the peninsula we wouldn't need to be there. But frankly, the Koreans and the Chinese hate the Japanese. And the Japanese hate the Russians. Japan is definitely a threat to Korea.

[mmm]

8. I did not know the Japanese hate the Russians

If you are still in the area, please, very briefly,
tell me how that came to be. Very interesting.

[Snow]

11. Not the original poster, but I'll take a shot at it...

Russia and Japan have been in territorial disputes since the mid-1800's at least. The tzars' eternal quest for ports was part of it, as was Japan's eternal quest to have room to expand off their islands. Currently Russia holds some islands north of Japan that Japan claims, and those were taken during the Russo-Japanese War - which Japan won, by the way. Russia and Japan went head-to-head during the end of the 1800's, and Queen Min of Korea played Russia off against Japan to stave off the Japanese takeover. It worked until Japanese ninjas sliced her up, in 1895. But the original dividing line of influence on the Korean peninsula, the 38th parallel, dates from that era, and from the end of WWII, when Russia was looking like taking over the entire country.

[mmm]

16. Thanks.

[NNN0LHI]

4. I think our intelligence shows N. Korea is preparing to test a nuke?

Better to get these guys out now before that event so as it does not look like we are running away after they do test one...which I think is what we are doing.

Don

[mmm]

9. I wonder where they will test that nuke?

I would assume they want the whole world to see it.

[salin]

10. A person very knowledgeable in the area

has long suggested that the first sign that we are preparing for quick air strikes (to cut off the NK nuclear capabilities) - is the movement of US troops out of the area. Have been hearing this with great concern for more than a year. Wonder if that is what is going on.

[Snow]

12. And is that the message Cheney is passing around the area?

drumming up business, selling China reactors, sure, but also, "by the way, don't let the mushroom cloud on the horizon freak you too much - we're going to handle Kim Joongil"

[tlcandie]

14. Stirring up the pot so they can all have ONE HUGE meltdown IMO

Selling missles to Taiwan and a whole lot more!! That in conjunction with the nuclear reactors to China and moving troops out of South Korea. Looks like a recipe for a HUGE meltdown..

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/D8E14218-46E8-4FC6-8C3D-7EF15D5E29FE.htm
Taiwan missile deal follows Cheney to China


EDIT: Add necessary ingredients (missles/nuclear reactors), stir (Cheney visit), then let simmer (pull all troops out and negotiations) until condensed (solidified for the meltdown).

[BayCityProgressive]

13. The US needs to leave both Koreas

we have done nothing but prop up right wing dictatorships in the south, while providing the north with the propaganda and fear mongering it needs to continue total military control. If we would have let the two sides of Korea sort out their own problems, they would be unified one way or the other..be it right wing dictaroship or communist..but at least we wouldn't be stuck there. Now there is one of each right on one anothers border and we are stuck in the middle. Just like Vietnam, it was apparently better to bomb the commies than to let rational thought prevail.

[Minstrel Boy]

15. precisely my thought

Once US troops are moved off the "trip wire," Koreans on both side of the DMZ had better duck and cover.

[Snow]

17. The other provocative trick the US has been pulling in Korea

is pushing the old guard opposition party to pull the rug out from under the current, very liberal, president. Not saying they might not have done it on their own, but whispers confirm a near-certainty of back-door US support for the impeachment of president Roh. A solid reason for that would be Roh's conciliatory attitude towards the north, and antipathy towards US manipulations.

[teryang]

19. Good point

Thanks for your informative post above.

[54anickel]

18. Talk of this was in the news quite a while ago. We wanted/needed those

troops for the ME. I'd have to dig to find the older articles on it.