YONHAP NEWS

(LEAD) Seoul, Washington agree to maintain current U.S. troop level here

   SEOUL, June 3 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's Defense Minister Lee Sang-hee and his U.S. counterpart Robert M. Gates agreed Tuesday to maintain the level of 28,500 American troops here, a senior defense official here said.

   The meeting in Seoul followed a summit between South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and U.S. President George W. Bush in April when the two heads of state agreed to freeze a drawdown of U.S. forces in Korea.

   "The defense ministers shared their view that maintaining the number of U.S. troops at the current level contributes to the joint combat readiness, and agreed to abide by the summit agreement between the two sides," the official said, speaking on customary condition of anonymity.

   Bush had promised to halt the drawdown of U.S. troops in Korea at his meeting with his South Korean counterpart, but the head of the U.S. Forces Korea, Gen. Burwell B. Bell, last week said Washington may pull out additional troops if there was ever need to do so due to the U.S. war against terrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan.

   The U.S. has long demanded Seoul to allow greater flexibility of its troops here to be deployed to other combat zones, but Seoul is cautious about granting such flexibility as it fears the move could turn the country into a forward base for the U.S. war on terrorism while unnecessarily provoking communist North Korea.

   Lee Sang-hee and Gates co-hosted a change of command ceremony later Tuesday for the USFK, whose incoming commander Gen. Walter L. Sharp will also head the United Nations Command and the South Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command, according to the Defense Ministry.

   Gates will hold a press conference before he leaves Seoul later Tuesday, according to the USFK.

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