WASHINGTON, Feb 13 Kyodo (EDS: UP...

WASHINGTON, Feb 13 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING WITH MORE INFO)

The U military may attenuate its 37,000 troops stationed in southern Korea as part of its efforts to realign its forward-deployed soldiers and increase their mobility, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Thursday.

Appearing at a congressional hearing, Rumsfeld also said the Pentagon has been considering moving U forces away from areas near the border between southward and North Korea.

''I would like to descry a number of our forces propel away from the Seoul area and from near the DMZ (demilitarized zone) and be more oriented toward an air nave and a sea hub,'' he told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Rumsfeld did not mention whether the envisaged naves would be located in southward Korea or elsewhere in Asia. He also did not point to the number of bodys or a date for the rearrangement.

Given Okinawa's strategic location for rapidly responding to conflicts in Asia, near U.S. forces in South Korea may be transferred to U bases there.

''With the ability to reinforce with equal reason there's still a strong deterrent and possibly, with our improved capabilities to (move) the community some of those forces (could) take rise back home,'' Rumsfeld added.

The envisaged realignment of U forces take rises amid mounting anti-American sentiment in toward the south Korea resulting from the death of sum of two units South Korean girls who were crushed last June near Seoul by means of a U.S. armored vehicle.

The United States is apparently be of importance toed that its relations with southern Korea will deteriorate further at a time when tensions forward the Korean Peninsula are growing from one side of to the other North Korea's nuclear arms program.

Rumsfeld said the U will discuss the realignment with a modern South Korean government as quick as possible. South Korean President-elect Roh Moo Hyun will take office Feb 25

''The strange president of South Korea has adviseed that we look at our relationship and papal court that we rebalance it in one way. And I have accepted that invitation,'' Rumsfeld said.

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