EDITORIAL
Realigning U.S. troops in Korea: doubts persist

The fact that the Bush administration has elicited Seoul's assent to a much-discussed realignment of U.S. troops now based near the Korean demilitarized zone does little to quiet serious misgivings about it.

Some fears may be eased, we think, by an explanation offered by the commander of U.S. forces in South Korea June 2, about which more later.

But first the fears:

• Some critics suspect U.S. troops are to be pulled out of harm's way, and later perhaps to be removed from Korea altogether, because Washington's commitment to the defense of the peninsula has lapsed. This fear is bad for the economy and stability for all of northeast Asia.
• Other critics suspect Washington contemplates an attack on North Korea's nuclear facility at Yongbyon and, expecting a vicious counterattack, wants the troops out of harm's way for that reason.

Meanwhile, it's difficult not to suspect that the realignment is in part due to a feeling on the part of some in the Bush administration of payback for periodic outbreaks of anti-U.S. sentiment in south Korea and President Roh Moo-hyun's campaign promise not to "kowtow" to Washington.

Moving 7,000 U.S. troops out of downtown Seoul will ease that irritant, but so would turning American miscreants over to South Korean courts when they injure South Koreans.

Yet the traditional defensive posture of American troops near the DMZ may indeed have outworn its usefulness. The "tripwire" concept has it that thousands of American troops would be so badly chewed up in a North Korean attack that an American response would be assured. But because remnants of those units would be regrouping, a counterattack would have to wait for reinforcements from Okinawa and beyond.

The realignment would change that. "While we can't completely compensate for the fact that North Korea has so much stuff right up forward on the DMZ, we could begin taking it down from the first hour of the war," Gen. Leon Laporte, commander of U.S. forces in Korea, told Reuters news service.

Other U.S. officials said U.S. and South Korean forces would be consolidated in two general areas away from the DMZ, and this would be more threatening to the North.

In the event of a war, these forces could skirt the DMZ and head straight for Pyong-yang and the North Korean leadership, the Reuters report said.

"This is (North Korean leader) Kim Jong Il's worst nightmare," said one official.

But if the realignment plan is indeed intended to deepen the American commitment to South Korea and increase its effectiveness, it appears Washington has a lot of selling yet to do, in regional capitals and particularly in Seoul, which continues to ask that the realignment be delayed until after resolution of the North Korean nuclear crisis.

Thus the realignment reflects some important brainstorming at the Pentagon, but also the misconception that crucial policy changes occur in a vacuum.