Korea, U.S. Air Their Differences Over Disclosure of Reduction of USFK

“There is a memorandum” versus “the U.S. does not have any record of understanding.”

Responding to Dong-A Ilbo’s request for re-confirmation, a high ranking official of the Korean Government confirmed that the claim of U.S. is “a pure fabrication,” saying, “The details of the briefing are true. We exchanged our mutual agreement as listed on the text of the minutes, and have a memorandum.”

However, an U.S. official in the Administration refused to confirm this, saying, “I have never heard about an exchange recorded in the text of minutes. I am saying this based on documents that were reported to the top levels of the U.S. administration.”

“After the disclosure of details of the briefing of the Korean government that public discussion about the reduction of the U.S. forces in Korea was postponed by the request of the U.S., many officials in the Washington administration were indignant,” he added. “We conveyed to Korean officials the message that if Korean government sticks to its guns, we would have no choice but to release ‘the facts’ to the press.”

Jung-Ahn Kim credo@donga.com