Going Nowhere

South Korea: U.S. Troops Will Stay Despite North Korea Peace Deal

Around 29,000 soldiers will stay put.

South Korea has insisted that U.S. troops will stay in the country despite the rapid cooling of tensions between South and North Korea. During last week’s historic meeting between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in, the two agreed to sign an agreement this year to bring an official end to six decades of hostility between their countries. Around 29,000 U.S. troops are stationed in the South under a security pact reached at the end of the Korean War in 1953 and the North has previously made American withdrawal a condition for giving up nuclear weapons. But a South Korean government spokesman has now said the troops have “nothing to do with signing peace treaties.” Kim Eui-kyeom, speaking for President Moon, said: “U.S. troops stationed in South Korea are an issue regarding the alliance between South Korea and the United States.”