SEOUL — The United States is preparing to withdraw 10% to 12% of its military forces from South Korea, Japan and the Philippines over the next three years, according to a classified Pacific strategy plan being prepared by the Pentagon.
Defense Secretary Dick Cheney will present the plan to South Korean defense officials today as he begins 10 days of high-level meetings with leaders of the East Asian allies.
He will also ask the three countries to assume far greater responsibility for their own defense, by spending more on their own militaries and contributing more to the cost of maintaining U.S. bases on their soil.
The troop cuts, while not as large as those planned for Europe, will involve the demobilization of 12,000 to 15,000 American troops out of the 120,500 currently stationed in the three Pacific nations.
Cheney's attempted balancing act is likely to unsettle the allies, who want the U.S. troops to remain for political, military and economic reasons, while leaving unsatisfied those in Congress who want more drastic cuts in the costly overseas deployments.
The shift in U.S. military strategy in the region reflects a changing global power balance as well as intense pressures on the Pentagon's $295-billion annual budget, defense officials say.
The review of Pacific strategy, formally known as the East Asia Strategy Initiative, or EASI, is being prepared at the direction of Congress, which last year demanded that the Pentagon present a detailed justification for the large U.S. military presence in the Far East.
In the review, which is due April 1, Cheney plans to present a vision of the U.S. role in the region over the next 10 years. For the short term, the next two or three years, the report will argue that the United States can withdraw 10% to 12% of its forward-deployed forces in Asia because of diminished Soviet military activity in the region and greater self-defense efforts by U.S. allies. The report will cite the surging economies of South Korea and Japan as a factor in allowing a reduction of U.S. defense efforts there.
The immediate reductions could be a prelude to deeper future cuts if these trends continue, the report says.
According to officials involved in drafting the strategy study, the United States expects South Korea to assume "the leading role" in its own defense within the next several years.
