It is feared that the move could leave South vulnerable to North

A US proposal to withdraw 12,500 troops stationed in South Korea by the end of 2005 is the leading news in prime-time evening bulletins on major South Korean TV stations. It has also made the front-page headlines in two main dailies' Tuesday editions.

Some media express concerns over the possible "security vacuum" and political signals this could send to North Korea. Others, however, voice fears over the future impact of troop reduction on the relations with the US. But some state media try to downplay the move, suggesting that it is only part of the planned US troop redeployment.

The government was "caught off guard", proclaimed the commercial SBS TV, which led its main bulletin with the news.

The government "did not seem too surprised" by the number but was "perplexed" by the timing, said the semi-independent MBC TV, which also gave prominence to the news in its main evening bulletin.

"A shocking reduction of US forces" is likely to harm the alliance between the two countries, said an editorial in the independent Tong-a Ilbo.

The reduction was not expected to begin until 2007 when the "cooperative self-reliant national defence" was due to have been completed, the TV recalled.

Alliance reassessed

Tong-a Ilbo sharply criticised the US for serving the government with "the inauspicious notice" which, it said, was "in reality, a unilateral notification".

The paper wondered if the "unilateral pullout" was a "proper duty of a 50-year-old ally", adding that the US decision "did not consider the special situation of Korea," or give consideration to the fact that the Korean peninsula's security is "one of the weakest in the world".

But the paper had some harsh words for Seoul, too, for its "easygoing attitude of neglecting the ROK-US alliance and the USFK (US Forces Korea) issue", which it described as most important for the country's future security.

It called on the government to urgently look into the alliance and assert that the "more fundamental and urgent" thing is to come out of the "trap of the clumsy logic on self-reliance".

But it also urged Washington not to "unilaterally press" the size and timing of the reduction "if it respects ROK-US alliance."

SBS TV, too, regretted the fact that the US "unilaterally" notified the government of its reduction plan.

The TV voiced fears that the move could further exacerbate tensions on the Korean peninsula and urged the government to prepare measures to "delay as much as possible the reduction of major units and ease the military tension between the North and South".

Reduction of sorts

The state-run KBS 1 TV, however, sought to downplay the significance of the move. It said it would have no impact on the USFK and its "major mission of defending the Korean peninsula as its capability for coping with a crisis will be reinforced through the introduction of a new weapons system".

However, it conceded d that the move had come earlier than expected.

Recalling that the South Korean military would have to take over 10 special missions currently assumed by the USFK by the end of 2005, it said that follow-up talks on "how to prepare for capability reinforcements are imperative".

South Korea's largest and oldest daily Choson Ilbo adopted a moderate stance.

It conceded that the scale of the reduction "may weaken" the US troops in the region and "trigger social unease and create a security vacuum". It sought, however, to reassure the readers that the reduction was "somewhat different from normal troop reduction", because it reflected changes in the US troop redeployment on a global scale.

The US has "already established its future role in Korea and decided to leave 25,000 troops" in South Korea. So "there is no need to be shaken up by the reduction", it suggested.

But it, too, urged the government to reassess its alliance with the US, "because it hardly reflects the views of the people."

BBC Monitoring, based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.