China News Service, July 22. According to a report by the US Defense News website, on the 21st local time, US Secretary of Defense Esper denied that he had issued an order to reduce US troops in South Korea.
Data map: US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper. China News Agency reporter Sha Hanting
Earlier, US media reported that because the United States and South Korea still have differences on the issue of the defense costs of the US military in South Korea, the US Department of Defense has proposed to the White House an option to reduce the number of US troops in South Korea. Currently, the United States and South Korea are still negotiating to reach a new agreement.
In this regard, on July 21, local time, Esper stated in a video seminar organized by the British think tank International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), "I have never given an order to withdraw troops from the Korean Peninsula."
Esper said that he only made it clear that he will implement the national military strategy and will further confirm whether the US military's global military deployment is reasonable.
According to a Korean media report on the 21st, South Korean Defense Minister Zheng Jingdou had a phone conversation with Esper in the morning. The two mainly discussed matters such as joint military exercises between South Korea and the United States, but did not discuss whether to reduce the size of the US military in South Korea, which has recently become a hot spot.
The Ministry of Defense of South Korea stated that the US government has not yet formally raised the issue of reducing US troops stationed in South Korea. Although some people in the United States have put forward a proposal to reduce US troops stationed in South Korea, it is difficult to implement this proposal, and the South Korea and the United States have not discussed this issue.