It's an enduring relic of the cold war: more than 15,000 U.S. troops
stationed just south of the Korean peninsula's Demilitarized
Zonewell within range of North Korean artillery. But the trip
wirethe boots-on-the-ground guarantee that an attack on South
Korea would automatically bring U.S. interventionmay soon be gone.
Last week, Seoul and Washington announced U.S. troops will pull back at
least 50 km to bases south of Seoul over the next few years. It makes
military sensea few thousand grunts were never going to block an
invasion by the 1.1 million-strong...