SEOUL—South Korea said it wouldn’t seek a withdrawal of U.S. troops stationed in the country if a peace deal is signed with North Korea, after an adviser to the South’s president said it would be difficult to justify a continued U.S. presence on the peninsula.
North and South Korea agreed during historic leadership talks last week to pursue a peace treaty to end the Korean War, replacing the armistice that halted hostilities in the 1950-53 conflict.
Pyongyang has long called for the removal of the 28,500 U.S. troops based on the Korean Peninsula. Critics of Seoul’s outreach to the North fear that the regime might demand a withdrawal or downsizing of American forces as one of the conditions for dismantling its nuclear weapons.
In a commentary this week in Foreign Affairs magazine, Moon Chung-in, a professor emeritus of political science at Yonsei University in Seoul and a top adviser to President Moon Jae-in, said an inter-Korean peace agreement could mean major changes for the military alliance.
“What will happen to U.S. forces in South Korea if a peace treaty is signed? It will be difficult to justify their continuing presence in South Korea after its adoption,” wrote Prof. Moon, a left-leaning foreign-policy expert who has advised past South Korean leaders.
A spokesman for South Korea’s presidential Blue House said Wednesday that the president considered the presence of U.S. troops on the peninsula an issue distinct from any peace agreement with North Korea.
“The U.S. military presence in South Korea is a matter of the U.S.-Korea alliance. It has no relevance to any peace treaty,” President Moon said through a spokesman. U.S. forces in Korea couldn’t be reached immediately for comment.
The presidential adviser’s suggestion triggered criticism from conservative lawmakers, and even from liberals in Seoul’s legislature who have supported the administration’s engagement policy toward North Korea.
“Even Kim Il Sung didn’t take issue with the presence of U.S. troops in 1992,” said Cho Bae-sook, the leader of a left-leaning party whose senior members were in the government that helped arrange the first inter-Korean summit in 2000. Kim Il Sung is the founder of North Korea and the grandfather of Kim Jong Un, the current leader.
President Moon has said the North hasn’t mentioned its demand, in recent talks, that the U.S. withdraw from the peninsula, but some North Korea watchers doubt there is any substantive policy change from Pyongyang.
Prof. Moon, the adviser, has advocated scaling back the U.S. military footprint in the South and has supported engagement with Pyongyang.
Minus the year before the Korean War began, U.S. troops have been on the peninsula since the end of World War II. A North Korean invasion of the South in June 1950 resulted in a massive reinforcement of the South. U.S. troops have remained on the peninsula since the 1953 armistice as part of its defense commitment to South Korea.
The U.S. and South Korea have been carrying out joint military exercises on the peninsula in recent weeks. Those maneuvers, which typically enrage Pyongyang, in years past have prompted the regime to respond with missile launches or nuclear tests.
Write to Andrew Jeong at andrew.jeong@wsj.com