It stays unclear what final night time’s political upheaval in South Korea will imply for the nation and area. Six opposition events have submitted a movement to question President Yoon Suk Yeol after he referred to as for martial legislation after which rescinded the order. In line with the Washington Publish, Yoon’s televised announcement got here as a shock to the U.S. administration, with the Pentagon having since declared that it “had nothing to do with occasions there.”
The U.S. has a heavy army presence in South Korea, together with each personnel and weapons. The bottom is taken into account tactically vital, each from the U.S. aspect, because it offers the nation affect within the area, in addition to for Korea, by way of having a powerful deterrence to nuclear-armed North Korea.
In line with knowledge from the Protection Manpower Information Middle, South Korea has the third highest variety of energetic U.S. troops deployed of any nation exterior of the contiguous U.S., at over 23,000 personnel.
It follows solely after Japan (52,852) and Germany (34,894). As of June 2024, there are 165,830 energetic personnel abroad, rising to 1,294,191 energetic personnel when together with these within the U.S.
This latter determine contains the Military, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Pressure, Area Pressure and Coast Guard. It additionally contains personnel who’re assigned to the State Division and embassies abroad, whereas it excludes personnel on short-term obligation and people deployed in assist of contingency operations.
As Statista’s Anna Fleck reveals within the infographic beneath, when each single nation with some form of U.S army presence is taken under consideration, almost each nation on the map must be highlighted.
In 140 of the 170 nations marked right here although, there are between one and 100 energetic personnel listed.
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In line with World Hearth Energy, the U.S. has the third largest variety of active-duty troops (1.3 million) of any army worldwide in 2024, trailing China (2 million) and India (1.5 million).