US troop presence in South Korea not ‘on table’ at Trump-Kim summit: Mattis

US Defence Secretary James Mattis delivers his speech during the first plenary session of the 17th Asian Security Summit of the IISS ShangriLa Dialogue in Singapore, in this June 2, 2018 photo. (AFP)

SINGAPORE: The issue of US troops stationed in South Korea will not be “on the table” at a summit this month between President Donald Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Saturday.
“That issue is not on the table here in Singapore on the 12th (of June), nor should it be,” he said at the Shangri-La Dialogue, a security summit in Singapore, referring to the scheduled date of the Trump-Kim meeting.
There are currently some 28,500 US forces based in the South.