U.S. has no plans to pull troops from S. Korea, says US official

“President Biden, as he has said repeatedly, has no intention of drawing down our forces from South Korea or from Europe,” said U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan.

“It is a fundamentally different kind of situation from the one we were presented with in Afghanistan,” Sullivan said in a briefing, signaling that the U.S. did not intend to withdraw troops from South Korea as concerns and criticism from allies grew over the situation in Afghanistan. However, given President Biden’s words that the U.S. would no longer fight a war that is “not in our national security interest,” there are some observations that the U.S. may suggest an “alliance bill” to the Korean government that may contribute to its national interest. The U.S. is planning to shift its focus from the Middle East to focus on Indo-Pacific region to keep China in check.

Sullivan described South Korea and Europe as places “where U.S. troops have been sustained for a very long time- not in the middle of a civil war, but to deal with the potential of an external enemy and to protect our ally against the external enemy.” These remarks were in reply to a question raised after President Biden said that the U.S. would not send sons and daughters to wars that are not in our national interest.


Jin-Woo Shin niceshin@donga.com · Ji-Sun Choi aurinko@donga.com