Mattis says US will keep current troop levels in South Korea

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis stated flatly Thursday that the United States will maintain its current number of troops on the Korean Peninsula.

Speaking alongside South Korean Defense Minister Song Young-moo, Mattis reinforced America’s “ironclad” commitment to Seoul, adding “the U.S. will continue to use the full range of diplomatic and military capabilities to uphold this commitment.”

His message was aimed at putting to rest talk the United States would pull its forces off the peninsula, a possibility that gained momentum when President Donald Trump said after his summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un that he’d like to remove all 28,500 U.S. troops from South Korea.