Analyst: U.S. troops in Korea are serving the national interest

WASHINGTON, Nov. 22 (UPI) -- A former U.S. deputy secretary of defense said a U.S. troop presence in South Korea is in the national interest.

Top security analyst and Center for Strategic and International Studies President John Hamre made the remark Monday during a discussion on U.S.-South Korea defense cooperation, which included a presentation by Chang Myung-jin, the head of South Korea's Defense Acquisition Program Administration, Yonhap reported.

"We've just elected a new president-elect, who has said rather curious things about our allies, implying that we're only in Korea to help Korea, we're not there for ourselves, we're there to help Korea. You know that's just completely wrong," Hamre said.

Hamre was referring to Donald Trump's campaign rhetoric regarding the defense of countries like South Korea and Japan. Both Seoul and Tokyo share the costs of keeping U.S. troops in the region, but the president-elect had said, "they don't pay us" in a past statement.

The issue of financial-burden sharing is of concern for South Korea.

Chang said in addition to investing more in improvements to existing South Korean weapons systems, Seoul should accept an increase in the financial burden of maintaining the U.S. military on the peninsula.

"My basic thought about that is just that if, and this may be a big if, President-elect Trump and his administration, when it comes to the alliance with [South Korea], of course the campaign's rhetoric has been toward that direction, and if there is a huge demand for more burden on the part of [South Korea], I think Korea will inevitably have to embrace that," Chang said.

A recent survey from the Chicago Council on Global Affairs shows 70 percent of Americans support a U.S. troop presence in South Korea.

A majority of respondents, or 60 percent, also said North Korea poses a serious threat to the United States.