Where a Bad Dream Lingers : U.S. troop withdrawals are put on hold until Pyongyang stops stalling on nuclear promise

The collapse of the Soviet Union is making possible dramatic cuts in the number of American troops in Europe, a force stationed there since NATO was founded in 1949. For nearly as long, though less visibly, U.S. military personnel have been assigned to South Korea--from 1950 to 1953 as the spearhead of the successful U.N.-supported effort to roll back North Korea’s aggression, since then as guarantors of South Korea’s security.

In the last two years 7,000 of the 44,400 Americans in South Korea have been withdrawn. About 6,600 more were to return home by the end of 1995. Now those plans have been suspended, in reluctant recognition of the dangers still facing a key ally in a region of major American interest.

The Korean peninsula “is one of the few places I still have bad dreams about,” says Defense Secretary Dick Cheney. The cause of concern is North Korea’s vigorously pursued if still officially denied program to acquire nuclear weapons.

Pyongyang continues to stall on its promise to cooperate with South Korea in reciprocal nuclear facilities inspections. Meanwhile, intelligence reports indicate that the north may be engaged in a massive undertaking to hide its nuclear weapons-related plants underground, safe both from observation by reconnaissance satellites and possible military attack.

It’s for this reason that American and South Korean security officials have agreed, in the words of their recent communique, “that any further drawdown of U.S. forces in Korea would be made only after the uncertainties surrounding the North Korean nuclear program have been thoroughly addressed.” Unless the Pyongyang regime’s Stalinist hostilities and suspicions suddenly abate, that could take some time.

There will at least be a significant offset to the costs of keeping 37,400 U.S. troops in Korea. Seoul plans to increase its financial support next year to $220 million, more than three times what it contributed in 1990. Meanwhile, the two allies and other countries in the region must keep up the diplomatic pressure to try to get North Korea to accept the fact that, like it or not, the Cold War is over.