Washington Examiner:
TROOPS TO STAY: When Defense Secretary Jim Mattis met with reporters on his plane back to Washington this weekend, he had something he wanted to get off his chest. The 28,500 U.S. troops stationed in South Korea are not leaving anytime soon. “We’re not going anywhere,” said Mattis. “It’s not even a subject of the discussions.”
Mattis was returning from the Shangri-la Dialogue in Singapore where North Korea and China were the big topics. Mattis pointed out that troop levels in South Korea are a joint decision of the U.S., South Korea and the United Nations under terms of the treaty that ended the Korean War in 1953. In fact, Mattis said Canada, which has a three-star general as deputy UN commander, is going to send more troops to the South to show solidarity with the U.S.
