Albright says too early to discuss cutting US troops in Asia

Albright says too early to discuss cutting US troops in Asia
AGENCE FRANCE PRESE

TOKYO, JULY 31: It is too early to consider cutting the 100,000-strong US military force in Asia despite recent changes in Northeast Asia, US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said Monday. "We have forces here, I think that they are very important to the security of the region and we are going to make sure that we are able to have the proper forces to deal with issues," she told the publically-funded television network Japan Broadcasting Corp. "But I don'T think it is appropriate at this stage to talk about numbers or make predictions," Albright said, when asked whether she could see a reduction in the size of the US force.

The United States has 100,000 forward-deployed troops in Asia, including 47,000 in Japan and another 37,000 in South Korea guarding the border with North Korea. "I think we have to be aware that there is a changing circumstance in Northeast Asia and that we want to be up to date," Albright said. "On the other hand I think that we can'T be swept away with things that have merely begun and I think a measured approach is the most important and approporiate in consultation with our partners." Albright was speaking at the end of a 48-hour visit to Japan after attending a Southeast Asian security summit in Bangkok. She met with North Korean Foreign Minister Paek Nam-Sun on Friday on the sidelines of the Bangkok summit, describing the encounter as "symbolically historic." It was the highest contact between the foes of the 1950-1953 Korean War and followed a first-ever summit between North Korea and South Korea from June 13-15.

But "we have to balance the euphoria versus some practical steps," Albright said. Washington wanted to see how Pyongyang dealt with concerns over its missile program, she said. Tokyo meanwhile alleged that North Korean agents have kidnapped 10 Japanese citizens since the 1960s, mostly to help train Pyonyang spies in Japanese customs. "We have to see how they really meet our concerns, which have to do with weapons of mass destruction problems and also how they treat some of the issues that the Japanese want: the question of the abductees," Albright said. mvl-djw/sps/lh