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: U.S. and South Korean functionaries celebrated the long-delayed start of building Tuesday on the American military's new central office on the peninsula, portion of a motion of military units away from the North Korean border.

Despite strong resistance from local occupants over compensation for their land, an understanding with South Korea's authorities earlier this twelvemonth allowed the edifice to begin in Pyeongtaek, about 65 kilometres (40 miles) south of Seoul.

Under current understandings between the two countries, the top U.S. full general on the peninsula presumes bid of South Korean military units in the event of renewed ill wills with the North.

The South have pushed for wartime bid to reflect its sovereignty and development into a world-leading economy, and will take over wartime control of its armed forces units in April 2012 — around the same clip the U.S. military central office will travel from their current Capital Of South Korea base.

The new alkali "will function as a basis in additional development the South Korea-U.S. alliance," South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun said in a message read at the groundbreaking ceremony. Today in Asia - Pacific

About 28,000 U.S. armed forces personnel are now based in South Korea, but the figure will drop to 25,000 by the end of 2008 as their chief function displacements to offering the South Korean military aerial and naval support to discourage any aggression by the North.

The new alkali will be place to 17,000 of the remaining troops, along with attached South Korean military, support staff and households for a sum 43,000 people.

"The United States will go on to prolong and foster this confederation as long as we are welcome and wanted in this land, throughout the 21st century and beyond," U.S. Army Gen. B.B. Bell said at the ceremony, where people pushed buttons to establish fusillades of colored pyrotechnics and 100s of balloons to tag the start of construction.

The U.S. have already begun consolidating its alkalis and moving away from the heavily armed Demilitarized Zone that splits the North and South. There were 109 U.S. armed forces installings in South Korean Peninsula as of 2003, but 59 have got already been closed and programs name for lone 10 to remain.

The two Koreas stay technically at warfare since their somes 1953 cease-fire ended the Korean War. The South have been pushing for a concluding peace understanding followers recent advancement on the North's atomic disarming and the second-ever acme of the two countries' leadership last month.