South Korea is doing its utmost to relocate U.S. military bases here, but the country cannot be held liable if the planned relocation is delayed, South Korean Foreign Minister Song Min-soon said Wednesday.
"The South Korean government has a strong determination to carry out the U.S. military base relocation plan at the earliest date possible," the minister said in a regular press briefing.
He said he has relayed the government's determination to Washington during his trip there last week, and that the United States is "very well aware of it."
Song's remarks came one day after the commander of U.S. troops in South Korea said he would fight any decision to postpone the planned relocation.
"I am opposed to any decision to stretch this out for any reasons, whether it's political or it's fiscal...or whatever it is," Gen. Burwell Bell said in a new conference here.
The South Korean minister said his country and the U.S. were closely working together to realize the relocation plan, but no one should be blamed for any delay of the plan, should there be one.
"This is an issue for which South Korea and the U.S. need to find the most suitable time for both of them, but it is not an issue in which one side can hold the other responsible" for any delay, Song said.
The planned relocation is part of a worldwide plan to realign U.S. forces deployed on foreign soil, in which most of U.S. troops stationed in Seoul and north of the South Korean capital would be relocated by 2008 to a city about 70 kilometers south of Seoul.
The relocation is estimated to cost more than US$10 billion.
The sides are still struggling to work out details of how they will share the burden.
In time for the relocation of U.S. forces in South Korea, Seoul hopes to take back wartime operational control of its troops from Washington.
Song said such changes in the location and role of the U.S. forces here would help strengthen the South Korea-U.S. alliance.
"Secretary of State (Condoleezza) Rice, Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England and I agreed the South Korea-U.S. alliance is undergoing positive changes to meet the future needs of their countries," Song said.
Song met with the U.S. officials during his six-day visit to Washington until Saturday.
He said the sides also agreed to push for an early resumption of international negotiations over North Korea's nuclear weapons program and called on the communist nation to make "early" steps toward the dismantlement of its nuclear program.
"We agreed South Korea and the U.S. would take active and positive steps (to reward the North) should North Korea respond positively to the countries' joint proposal for early steps toward its nuclear dismantlement," he said.
Wednesday's press briefing followed a public uproar, prompted by an informal suggestion by President Roh Moo-hyun that Seoul and Tokyo work to rename the waters between their countries to put an end to a long-standing dispute over the name of the sea.
The South Korean president made the suggestion at his November meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on the sidelines of an Asian-Pacific economic forum in Hanoi, Vietnam.
South Korea and many others in the region have long called the waters the East Sea, but Japan successfully replaced the centuries-old name with "Sea of Japan" during its colonial rule of Korea from 1910 to 1945.
Song, however, said the country will continue to call the waters the East Sea and work to have the name recognized by the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO).
"The president's suggestion at the Hanoi summit was merely to say that the countries could approach the issue with such a change of view. But the government's position is clear that the name of the sea is East Sea," the minister said.
"(The government) is also doing its utmost to get the name across to the IHO," he added.
Seoul, Jan. 10 (Yonhap News)
Seoul will not be liable for delay of planned U.S. base relocation: minister |
