The United States is pushing to retain its artillery brigade stationed north of Seoul at its current location despite a previous agreement to relocate all of its forces to a southern city, diplomatic sources said Thursday.

Under a land partnership plan signed in 2002, Seoul and Washington agreed to relocate the United States Forces Korea’s headquarters of the Yongsan Garrison in central Seoul and the 2nd Infantry Division based north of the capital to Pyeongtaek, some 70 kilometers south of Seoul, by 2016.

Despite the agreement, Washington has recently expressed its strong intention to keep the 210th Fires Brigade under the 2nd Infantry Division at its current location, citing the need to guard against threats by North Korea, the sources said.

The U.S. claims the relocation of the artillery unit, whose main task is to contain invading North Koran troops near the border, may compromise its combat readiness, according to the sources.

The U.S. position was raised and discussed during the two allies’ recent military consultations, called the Korea-U.S. Integrated Defense Dialogue, held earlier in the week in Seoul, the sources noted.

“The U.S. has recently expressed its intention repeatedly and strongly to retain the 2nd Infantry’s 210th Fires Brigade in Dongducheon, Gyeonggi Province, at the current location,” one of the sources said. “As far as I know, such an intention has been expressed several times during the high-level and main sessions of the KIDD talks.”

The shift in U.S. stance, meanwhile, may pose a headache to Seoul.

The regional governments hosting the U.S. artillery unit may be the first to resist the U.S. plan as they are considering different uses for the land to be freed up by the relocation.

The South Korean government cannot easily brush aside the U.S.’ wishes, given its current negotiations with its ally to further delay the planned transfer of wartime operational control of Korean troops back to Seoul.

Under a previous agreement, Seoul was to take over the wartime military command next year. But the country asked for a delay in the handover last year following North Korea’s threats of a third nuclear test.



The allies are expected to decide on the OPCON delay during their defense ministers’ talks scheduled for October in Washington.

“Our (South Korean) side hopes to delay the transfer by as many as eight years ... and the government is tormented between the U.S. push and its official pledge to the South Koren citizens to relocate the U.S. troops,” another source noted.

About 28,500 American troops are stationed in South Korea to help defend its Asian ally from North Korean aggression, a legacy of the Korean War that ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.

In a previous agreement, the allies also agreed to exempt the Combined Forces Command, the joint military command now based in Yongsan, from the relocation plan. (Yonhap)