President Trump Says He May Consider Withdrawing US Military from South Korea Over Cost Sharing and Trade Disputes
I would not put too much stock in this statement which I think could be interpreted as rhetoric for the friendly audience and part of a negotiating strategy for US-ROK cost sharing and trade talks. With that said the ROK would probably be wise to not totally dismiss his comments:
President Donald Trump hinted he may withdraw American troops from South Korea if the U.S. ally doesn’t concede more in trade negotiations, a newspaper reported.
The Washington Post quoted Trump as saying Wednesday in a fundraising speech that the United States was losing money on trade with South Korea as well as the military presence that is meant as protection against aggression from the North.
“We have a very big trade deficit with them, and we protect them,” Trump said Wednesday in audio obtained by the Post. “We lose money on trade, and we lose money on the military. We have right now 32,000 soldiers between North and South Korea. Let’s see what happens.”
“Our allies care about themselves,” he said in the 30-minute speech to donors in Missouri. “They don’t care about us.” [Stars & Stripes]
You can read more at the link.
We should leave the socialist state of the smiley face Moon. South Korea has become to big for their britches. Let the dictator Kim Jong Un have it.
President Trump is a WUSS, he’ll never pullout of Korea.
Let’s see what the Commies do with those apples.
Trump is indeed a wuss and there is absolutely no chance he will order a pre-emptive strike on the DPRK.
Well, that is quite the open bargaining gambit. I hope it is not just talk though. South Korea has gotten by on the cheap for to long. Understood up through the 70’s but after that they should be taking care of themselves and not relying on Daddy War Bucks. I mean look at their joke of a conscript army, and commie moon is reducing the service length to a mere 18 months, troops will be lucky to learn to but their boots on correctly in that time.
Flyingsword, they’ll all be as well trained as Sam Hamington (or whatever his real name is) after he went through TV boot camp.
and he never lost weight…
It’s gonna be like the SVN army all over again.
Think on this, ROK army conscript time soon to be only 18 months but many US military members are assigned to Korea for 24 months. So a US Soldier will serve longer in Korea than a ROK citizen serves his own country. 😮
Moon, if he really is lowering the time of service, doesn’t want effective troops that can actually fight the worm-ridden soldiers of the North, he wants a token facade to cover Rocketman’s pride…
Meanwhile, Americans are really doing the same thing as fewer and fewer young men and women are even qualified to enlist every year… (obesity, poor grades, use of illicit drugs, other crimes)…
🙁 🙁 🙁