Rumsfeld - Time for South Korea to lessen dependence on U.S.

OSAN AIR BASE, South Korea -- The United States and South Korea agree the time has come, 50 years after the Korean War, for the economically vibrant Asian country to lessen its dependence on the American military, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Tuesday.

"It is time for them to set a goal for becoming somewhat more self-reliant," Rumsfeld said during a question-and-answer session with several hundred U.S. troops at Osan Air Base. Banners lining the hangar where he spoke highlighted the immediacy of the North Korean military threat felt by 37,000 American troops stationed here and around the country.

"Ready to Fight Tonight," read the banner of the 51st Fighter Wing.

"Take the Fight North," read another.

In an interview later, Rumsfeld told reporters he endorses President Roh Moo-hyun's vision of a South Korea that takes more responsibility for its own defense. "That's a correct direction," Rumsfeld said, noting that defense officials in Seoul reaffirmed to him Monday their plan to shift 10 military missions now performed by Americans to their own forces, including security in the border area with the North.

Rumsfeld's comment also reflects his desire to see a major realignment of U.S. forces in South Korea -- a change that likely will result in a sizable troop reduction. The Pentagon believes as many as 12,000 of the 37,000 troops could be brought home, although Rumsfeld and others said the scope and timing of any troop cuts have not been decided.

South Korea has about 670,000 people under arms and its military has added technological prowess in recent years. The North Korean military, on the other hand, has deteriorated in important respects, due to a lack of resources that limits training and modernization.

Although the size of the U.S. force stationed here since the war ended in 1953 is small by comparison, it has served to deter North Korea. And its positioning near the Demilitarized Zone separating the North and South has made it a "tripwire," ensuring that any attack by the North would spill American as well as Korea blood.

One of the messages Rumsfeld sought to convey during his two days in South Korea was that whatever changes are made in the size or positioning of U.S. forces, they will end up being more capable and credible -- not less. This is so, he said, because technological advances, and improvements in the way U.S. air, land and sea forces fight together, mean numbers alone do not determine how effective an army, navy or air force can be.

"Mass is not critical" in the war-fighting calculus of the 21st century, Rumsfeld told a meeting of U.S. and South Korean businessmen in Seoul on Tuesday, according to participants.

The Korean War, which took the lives of more than 30,000 Americans and hundreds of thousands of South Koreans, ended in a truce rather than a peace treaty, so in the minds of the South Koreans, the threat of renewed war looms large.

The U.S. Army's 2nd Infantry Division, armed with a full array of armor and attack helicopters, is the main U.S. ground force in the country. Its 16,000 soldiers are spread among 17 encampments just south of the DMZ, where they would either be overrun by invading North Korean forces or compelled to withdraw south of Seoul before counterattacking.

On Tuesday, Rumsfeld visited one of those 17 posts, Camp Casey, about eight miles south of the DMZ. He greeted soldiers, visited a training center where soldiers practice tank gunnery in computerized simulators, and had lunch with troops.

Afterward he got an aerial tour of Camp Humphreys, south of Seoul, where much of the force that is now north of the capital will move sometime after 2006. He then visited Osan before flying back to Washington.