US troop presence in ROK not 'on table' at Trump-Kim summit: Mattis

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The issue of US troops stationed in the Republic of Korea (ROK) will not be "on the table" at a summit between President Donald Trump and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's (DPRK) Kim Jong Un, US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Saturday.

"That issue is not on the table here in Singapore on the 12th (of June), nor should it be," he said at the Shangri-La Dialogue, a security summit in Singapore, referring to the scheduled date of the Trump-Kim meeting.

US Secretary of Defence Jim Mattis speaks at the IISS Shangri-la Dialogue in Singapore, June 2, 2018. /VCG Photo

There are currently some 28,500 US forces based in the ROK.

Trump said Friday he will meet Kim for the historic summit as originally scheduled after extraordinary Oval Office talks with a top envoy from Pyongyang.

Trump told reporters that denuclearization – and a formal end to the decades-old Korean war – would be on the table in Singapore.

However, Mattis stressed that "any discussion about the number of US troops in the Republic of Korea is subject to... the Republic of Korea's invitation to have them there, and the discussions between the United States and the Republic of Korea, separate and distinct from the negotiations that are going on with the DPRK.

Australia's Defence Minister Marise Payne (L-R), China's PLA Lieutenant-General He Lei and Canada's Defense Minister Harjit Sajjan listens to US Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis' address at the IISS Shangri-la Dialogue in Singapore, June 2, 2018. /VCG Photo

"That issue will not come up in the discussion with the DPRK."

But he added: "Obviously if the diplomats can do their work, if we can reduce the threat, if we can restore confidence building measures with something verifiable, then of course these kinds of issues can come up subsequently between (the ROK and the US)."

Last month, the ROK's President Moon Jae-in dismissed claims that US troops stationed in the country – based on Seoul's alliance with Washington – would have to leave if a peace treaty was signed with the DPRK.

Japan's Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera speaks to US Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis at the IISS Shangri-la Dialogue in Singapore, June 2, 2018. /VCG Photo

Japan’s Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera during the security summit said it was important not to reward the DPRK for only agreeing to dialogue and it must take concrete action to dismantle all of its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

He noted the DPRK had entered into agreements to end its nuclear program in the past only to conduct more activities to further their weapons development.

Source(s): AFP ,Reuters