MOSCOW, October 26 (RIA Novosti) - U.S. troops will stay in South Korea after a peace treaty with North Korea is signed, South Korea's foreign minister said on Friday, the Yonhap news agency reported.
"The U.S. forces in Korea will maintain their presence on the Korean Peninsula even after a peace agreement is signed and continue to carry out a role that would serve the changed security needs in Northeast Asia," Song Min-soon was quoted as saying at a forum held in Seoul on Friday.
There are some 30,000 U.S. troops in South Korea costing the country almost $1 billion annually.
At a historic summit held earlier in October the Korean leaders said they wanted to hold talks on a peace treaty to replace the ceasefire agreement signed in 1953.
The talks will be attended by the United States and China, who also signed the ceasefire agreement.
