USFK Decision / KBS뉴스(News)

[Anchor Lead]
The presidential office says that there’s no connection between a peace treaty to formally end the Korean War and whether U.S. troops will remain stationed in South Korea. The announcement comes after a special adviser to the president published an article saying it would be hard to justify having U.S.F.K. stationed here if the two Koreas signed a peace treaty. Here’s more.
[Pkg]
This is the article that Special Policy Adviser for Unification, Foreign Affairs and Security Moon Chung-in had contributed to a U.S. foreign policy journal. It says that once a peace treaty is signed on the Korean Peninsula, it would be difficult to justify the presence of U.S. troops in Korea. The article has triggered widespread controversy in political circles, prompting the presidential office to step in -- in a quite unprecedented move.
[Soundbite] Kim Eui-kyeom(Cheong Wa Dae Spokesperson) : "I am quoting President Moon Jae-in directly. "The U.S. forces stationed in Korea are an issue of the South Korea-U.S. alliance. It has nothing to do with the signing of a peace treaty.""
Cheong Wa Dae made it clear that even if a peace treaty were signed in line with the Panmunjom Statement, U.S. troops would stay in Korea as part of the South Korea-U.S. alliance. Cheong Wa Dae drew a line between its stance and the special unification adviser's views by saying that he must not present them as the views of the South Korean president. Cheong Wa Dae's response comes amid the opposition parties' demands to fire the special unification adviser and is believed be one of the measures by the Blue House to prevent unnecessary conflicts ahead of Pyongyang's summit with Washington. The U.S. State Department's Korea Policy Director Mark Lambert said that the issue of withdrawal of U.S. troops from the Korean Peninsula was not to be discussed at the upcoming summit talks.