The U.S. Department of Defense says the U.S. has an “ironclad” alliance with South Korea and remains true to that alliance, amid media reports that it is considering reducing the number of U.S. troops in South Korea. 

Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell voiced the position in a press briefing on Wednesday when asked if the Pentagon has any plans to reduce troop numbers. 

But the spokesperson declined to give a direct answer, saying that normally, the U.S. does not comment on force posture reviews from the podium. 

In late May, the Wall Street Journal reported that one option under consideration in the Pentagon was to pull about 45-hundred troops from South Korea and move them elsewhere in the Indo-Pacific region.