Fewer U.S. Troops Available for Korea

The U.S. Department of Defense is undertaking the task of reorganizing American forces by decreasing ground armies and increasing air power for the coming period that the Korean army takes over wartime operational control from the U.S.

It has been revealed that the Pentagon has laid out a plan to establish the Air Force Korea War Fighting Headquarters (AFKOR WFHQ) under the jurisdiction of U.S. Army Pacific Command (USARPAC) at least until 2009.

According to U.S. Army sources, the Pentagon now plans to deploy new fighters in Osan Air Base in a few years, where the 7th Air Force is stationed, and also plans to establish AFKOR WFHQ with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) such as Predator.

It is said that the Pentagon is in motion to create another air combat command under the USARPAC within this year to cope with accidental occurrences over the Asia-Pacific region.

An U.S. military official said, “Setting up two air combat commands under the Pacific Command represents U.S.’s intention of rearranging the military in Asia-Pacific region in an Air Force-oriented structure, reducing the ground forces.”

The Pentagon now is examining two options: one is to minimize the chain of command and mission of the U.S. 7th Air Force, which has been stationed in Osan since AFKOR WFHQ established, in which the 7th Air Force loses its current position and is demoted to a ‘middle command’. Another plan is to transfer the 7th Air Force to AFKOR WFHQ

According to this, the 7th U.S. Air Force is expected to go through a substantial change for the first time since it stationed in Korea in 1986 and became a core military power of the U.S. affiliated force.

A U.S. Army official said “AFKOR WFHQ is absolutely necessary for the prompt support for the Air Force if the Wartime Operation Control is transferred to the Korean Armed forces.”

On September 25, the New York Times reported that as U.S. ground military forces are deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan for an extensive time, the ground forces to dispatch to the Korean peninsula in emergency is now in great shortage.

It also reported considering the current status of armament and condition, the scale of American elite military troops capable of handling unexpected international conflicts would be merely 2 or 3 combat brigades (7,000-10,000 people).

Following the dispatch of the third infantry division of Georgia, which is supposed to deploy in case of foreign wars like in Korea, to Iraq in 2003 and 2005, one of the four brigades will be sent to Iraq this year.

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