Canadian Lieutenant General Wayne Eyre, deputy commander of the United Nations Command in South Korea, speaks during a news conference before a repatriation ceremony for remains transferred by North Korea, at Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek, South Korea August 1, 2018. Jung Yeon-je/Pool via REUTERS
Reuters: War-end declaration 'slippery slope' for U.S. Korea presence: U.N. Command general
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A declaration to end the 1950-53 Korea War could be a “slippery slope” to questioning the need for the U.S. troop presence in South Korea, the deputy head of the U.N. Command overseeing the Korean armistice said on Friday, ahead of new talks between Washington and Pyongyang.
Canadian Lieutenant-General Wayne Eyre said North Korea’s push for such a declaration could be a ploy to divide the U.S.-South Korea alliance and secure the withdrawal of the 28,500 U.S. troops based in the South.
“You have to question why North Korea is pushing so hard for that end-of-war declaration,” he told an event at Washington’s Carnegie Institute for International Peace.
“The optimistic would say that he (North Korean leader Kim Jong Un) needs it for a domestic audience so he can change his ways and have a new approach; the pessimist would say it’s another way to split the allies apart.”
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WNU Editor: It is going to take more than just a declaration that the Korean war is over for U.S. troops to leave the peninsula. At best .... if everyone's expectations are reached and a true reconciliation is reached between North and South Korea .... it will be years before U.S. troops start to leave, and then again maybe not.
