By Ryu Jin
Staff Reporter

The South Korean government has reached an internal consensus to agree with the U.S. plan to move the headquarters of ROK-U.S. Combined Forces Command (CFC) and the United Nations Command (UNC) out of Yongsan, senior government officials said on Wednesday.

No official announcement has been made, however.

The internal decision comes after the two sides failed to finalize a garrison relocation plan due to differences over the size of the land that would continue to be occupied by U.S. forces in the Yongsan area.

Seoul and Washington agreed earlier this year to relocate the Yongsan Garrison, the 8th U.S. Army’s 81 million-pyong (320 hectares) headquarters, to an area south of the capital by 2006, leaving only about 1,000 soldiers of the CFC and the UNC.

American and Korean negotiators, led by their respective defense chiefs, tried to iron out their differences in the security talks held here on Monday, but ultimately failed.

Washington had requested some 28 million pyong, or about 30 percent of the current total, but Seoul offered only 17 million pyong, sources familiar with the negotiations said.

It appears that the Seoul government finally decided to accept the proposal after the U.S. reportedly said that it cannot thin out all its 7,000 soldiers in the Yongsan Garrison unless its space demand is met.

Senior officials explained the government’s decision was premised on the general understanding that the pullback of American forces would not weaken the combined deterrent against North Korea because the force possesses high-tech weaponry systems that do not require the same forward deployment currently in place. They also said they are aware of the public criticism the decision may invite if the government is seen yielding to U.S. demands.

In the meantime, the bilateral troop reduction talks will also likely to be deferred until next year. Given the timetable of the 2004 U.S. presidential race, the agreement means the issue is likely to be shelved until after the end of next year, said the high-profile government official. However, he stressed the agreement was made before Monday’s security meeting, and therefore, has nothing to do with Seoul’s offer to send additional troops to Iraq.

jinryu@koreatimes.co.kr