U.S. Forces in Korea Ranked 1.5 to 2 On Pentagon’s Four Point Scale

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) made known Wednesday that the United States has informed the government that the U.S. Forces in Korea are graded 1.5 or 2 out of a possible 4 in its Global Posture Realignment (GPR) program.

On this day, a source from MFAT stated that “at the Seventh Future Alliance Policy Visualization Conference, which was held this February in Seoul, the United States explained the GPR program, informing us that the U.S. Forces in Korea would become a Main Operating Base (MOB) or an intermediate sized military base between MOB and a Power Projection Hub (PPH).”

GPR categorizes the U.S. military bases in overseas in four different levels such as PPH, which means a base for deploying large numbers of troops and equipment, MOB, a regular base for large-scale troop stationing for a long-term period, Forward Operating Site (FOS), a small military base, and Cooperative Security Location (CSL), a small size office for liaison officers.

That is, the United States weighs the strategic importance of its military bases graded in order of PPH, MOB, FOS, and CSL because such a categorized list means a centralized rate of weapon and troop arrangement. Considered from this angle, the U.S. Forces in Korea can be regarded as 1.5 or 2nd level.

In case of U.S. Forces in Japan, it has been known that they fall under the category of PPH.

But, MFAT has explained that these sorts of troop classifications do not always refer to the relative importance of certain troops, but mere dimensional differences.

This source remarked that “the reason that the GPR problem, which aims at reducing or removing U.S. Forces in Korea, was not discussed at the eighth conference held on May 6 and 7, is that the main agenda of the conference was set during the negotiations of the troop movement from its current base, Yongsan Camp.”

On the other hand, U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz disclosed on Tuesday that the Pentagon has planned a reduction of U.S. Forces in Korea since 2003, and sending a part of the U.S. Forces in Korea to Iraq fits in well with the manpower reduction plan and requirements for additional manpower in Iraq.

It was the first time a high-level official of the George W. Bush administration has directly dealt with the “Reduction plan” of U.S. Forces in Korea.

Participating in the Diplomacy Committee of the Senate’s hearing for Iraqi policy on this day, Wolfowitz stated that “we have consented to reduce the burdens of the soldiers having to serve their duty without their families for a year in Korea, and have planned for some reductions so far.”

As for the role of U.S. Forces in the Demilitarization Zone (DMZ), he said, “Frankly speaking, they do not play any role except the unnecessary and inefficient function of being a war deterrent.”

On May 20, government will hold a security-related Minister’s Meeting at Chong Wa Dae, which will be presided over by President Roh Moo-hyun, and discuss countermeasures for filling in the void created by the departure of U.S. forces from the Korean Peninsula, additional troop dispatch to Iraq, and the Six Party Talks aimed at resolving the North Korean nuclear problem.