U.S. has no plan to send Okinawa marines to S. Korea: report.

SEOUL, June 8 Kyodo

The United States is not planning to send to South Korea its marines to be pulled out of Okinawa, Japan, a local daily reported Friday, citing a U.S. Defense Department spokeswoman.

"The Defense Department has no plans to relocate marines from Okinawa to South Korea," Maj. Cathy Wilkinson said in an email interview with the Korea Herald, dismissing speculation that they will be dispatched to South Korea on a rotational basis.

Washington and Tokyo announced in April their agreement to move some 9,000 U.S. Marines from Guam and other locations in the Asia-Pacific region.

Reports had said that the United States was considering sending some of them to South Korea, possibly the country's western coastal area, to bolster deterrence against North Korea.

The reports caused concerns that the presence of U.S. troops specializing in amphibious landing operations could provoke Pyongyang and Beijing, particularly at a time when tension has increased due to Pyongyang's continuing saber-rattling, such as the botched rocket launch in April and indications that it plans a third nuclear test.

Experts say that although the U.S. Marines could stay here for a short period of time for exercise purposes, it may be difficult for them to be stationed here as the United States seeks to scale back defense spending and would have to build facilities to accommodate them.

"For the U.S, it is of course burdensome to deploy marines to South Korea given the budget required to accommodate them here," said Lee Dae Woo, senior fellow at Sejong Institute, according to the Korea Herald.

"Should it have to send the marines to this region, it is highly likely that they would be dispatched to the Philippines as there are growing maritime disputes in the South China Sea. As Korea has a presidential election this year, domestic political conditions are not good for that as well," Lee was quoted as saying.

The United States already has around 28,500 troops on the Korean Peninsula, mainly as deterrence against North Korea.

It is working to relocate its troops in Seoul and north of the capital down to Pyeongtaek, in Gyeonggi Province, as part of its global troop realignment scheme designed for "strategic mobility."