U.S. considers withdrawing of 4,500 troops from S. Korea to Guam or other locations

The Trump administration could be pulling thousands of U.S. soldiers out of South Korea to have them stationed in other locations in the Indo-Pacific an idea that's reportedly yet to be greenlit by Trump.

Bae Eun-ji has our top story.

The U.S. is considering withdrawing around 4-thousand-500 American troops from South Korea to Guam or other locations in the Indo Pacific region.

That's about 16-percent of the total number of U.S. forces in South Korea, where there are roughly 28-thousand-500 troops.

Citing defense officials familiar with the matter, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that the idea is being developed by the Pentagon for consideration by Trump as part of an informal policy review on dealing with North Korea.

It added the proposal has yet to reach Trump's desk and is one of several ideas under discussion by senior officials conducting the review.

When asked about a possible troop withdrawal, the Pentagon reportedly said there were no policy announcements to make.

Since his first term, Trump has considered changing the U.S. footprint in South Korea which relies on close coordination with U.S. forces to deter threats from North Korea.

"It depends. We pay for military over in Europe. We don't get reimbursed by much. South Korea too."

But the head of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command has presented negative views about the idea of a troop drawdown in a Senate hearing last month, saying the loss of the force on the Korean Peninsula, would mean a higher probability that North Korea would invade.

"As General Brunson said, North Korea's development of advanced nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles pose a direct threat to our homeland and our allies, and are executing a deepening cooperation with Russia."

Trump has been hinting at an attempt to renegotiate a deal on sharing the costs for American troops stationed in Korea, saying Washington cannot be taken advantage of any longer in military and trade.

He's described South Korea as a "money machine," insisting that Seoul should be paying 10 billion dollars a year.

Pulling troops out of Korea could mean that the Trump administration is looking to redeploy them to areas that better align with priority goals such as countering China.

The Washington Post reported in March that a secret internal guidance memo signed by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth showed that the country considers China as its sole pacing threat,.. pressuring allies in East Asia, Europe and the Middle East to spend more on defense to deal with threats from North Korea, 러시아 and Iran.

Bae Eun-ji, Arirang News.