The US military will deploy 800 additional troops from an armored unit to South Korea to strengthen its forces in case of a crisis with North Korea, the Pentagon said Tuesday.
The US Army soldiers, armored vehicles and tanks from the first Battalion, 12th Cavalry Regiment could be stationed at camps Hovey and Stanley near the demarcation line with the North starting next month, military officers said.
The rotational deployment is a part of a strategic shift towards the Asia-Pacific region “and allows greater responsiveness to raised meet theater operational requirements,” the Pentagon said in an announcement.
“This is a plus-up,” spokesman Colonel Steven Warren told reporters, confirming that the U.S. military presence would expand under the verdict.
The move “is a part of our rebalance to the Pacific,” he said.
The US military already has 28,500 troops at the ground within the South and the verdict to send reinforcements gave the impression to signal Washington’s concern over possible provocations from volatile North Korea.
But Warren said the deployment had “been long planned.”
The unit includes 40 Abrams M1 tanks and 40 Bradley armored fighting vehicles, he added.
Under a treaty with Seoul, the usa military commander would lead both the yank contingent and South Korea’s 640,000-strong force in case of a war with the North.
During peacetime, either side maintains operational command in their own troops.
South Korea agreed to take over wartime operational command of all troops starting in 2015, after delaying a prior target date in 2012.
Tensions with North Korea have prompted Seoul to reconsider the plan, and the South has asked Washington to check the timing of the scheduled transition.
The “combat ready” cavalry unit will stay in South Korea for a nine-month tour but will leave its armored vehicles and tanks behind for troops that follow them, the Pentagon said.
The announcement came an afternoon after Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel hosted South Korea’s Foreign Minister Yun Byung-Se for talks on the Pentagon.
“The two discussed the significance of maintaining a strong combined defense of the Korean Peninsula as a robust deterrent against provocations from North Korea,” spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby said.
South Korea and america have called for vigilance at the peninsula after North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un ordered the execution of his uncle, Jang Song-Thaek, for an alleged plot.
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