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DoD News Briefing

Q: Yeah, the South Korean parliament has called on the U.S. to renegotiate its Status of Forces Agreement. Is the Defense Department prepared to move forward on that?

Bacon: Well, we have a representative over there now, Fred Smith, who is the head of our Asian Policy Division, a deputy assistant secretary of Defense. He is over there working on the Status of Forces Agreement right now. This has been a long-standing matter between the United States and Korea. We would like to get it wrapped up, but we want to get it wrapped up in a way that protects the interests of our soldiers and protects the interests of the Koreans and, so far, we haven't been able to achieve that balance.

We need an agreement that, as I said, makes it possible for our soldiers to serve with certain legal protections in Korea, and we're willing to sit down with them and negotiate on a mutually agreed way to achieve that.

Q: Our troops in, say, Europe, are much more exposed to local law than they are in Korea?

Bacon: Yeah, a lot of it reflects the maturity of the local law enforcement systems and the protections that soldiers get under local laws.

In both Europe and Japan, there is a fair amount of exposure to local law enforcement systems. These are generally Western-based or -inspired law-enforcement systems in Japan, after the occupation, following World War II, and in Europe as well.

What we're looking for are basically equal protections for our soldiers, no matter where they serve. And that's what we're trying to work out with the South Koreans. I think they understand that. They obviously have their own issues, legal and political issues, to deal with, but so do we.