Park reconciled to U.S. pull-out

Press, 26 May 1977, Page 8

Park reconciled to U.S. pull-out

NZPA-Reuter Seoul President Park Chung-hee of South Korea has accepted as an “accomplished fact” President Carter’s plan to withdraw the 33,000 American ground troops from South Korea over four or five years, a Presidential spokesman has said. President Park held threehour long talks with a U.S. Under-Secretary of State, Mr Philip Habib, and General George Brown, chairman of the American Joint Chiefs of Staff, who arrived in South Korea on Tuesday to initiate official consultations on the proposed withdrawal. Mr Park emphasised that the planned United States ground troop withdrawal should be preceded by supplementary measures to maintain deterrent power to ensure peace in Korea and to build up the South Korean forces to keep the military balance on the Korean Peninsula, a Presidential spokesman, Mr Lim Banghyun, told reporters. The President was quoted as telling the two United

States Presidential envoys, “Supplementary measures first, and withdrawal next is our basic policy and it is our hope that this will be implemented.”

The United States Presidential envoys told President Park that the projected withdrawal would be effected by phases and carefully so that the military balance in Korea would not be disrupted and the communists would not be tempted to make any miscalculation, the spokesman said.

They pledged support for South Korea’s own plan to acquire self-reliant defence, reiterated the United States commitment under the mutual defence treaty and assured the President that the United States Air Force would remain in South Korea, the spokesman added. President Park said that South Korea had hoped the United States troops would remain till peace had settled or at least until the danger of war had markedly lessened.