Trump Did Not Ask Pentagon for Options on Reducing Forces in S Korea - Bolton

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - US President Donald Trump did not ask the Pentagon to give him options for reducing the number of US troops stationed in South Korea, despite media reports to the contrary, US National Security Adviser John Bolton said in a statement on Friday.

"The New York Times story is utter nonsense. The President has not asked the Pentagon to provide options for reducing American forces stationed in South Korea," Bolton said.

The statement comes after earlier in the day, The New York Times newspaper reported that its sources had admitted that a peace deal would diminish the need for the US to keep a 28,500-strong force on the peninsula. 

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On May, South Korean President Moon Jae-in said that the presence of US forces in South Korea was "a matter for the South Korea-US alliance," dismissing the possibility of withdrawing US troops stationed in the country in the event of signing a peace treaty with North Korea, which would formally put an end to the 1950-1953 Korean War.

Trump is expected to hold a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in the next three to four weeks in order to work out a deal to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula.