Obama nominates new deputy USFK commander

WASHINGTON, June 27 (Yonhap) -- U.S. President Barack Obama has nominated a new deputy commander of U.S. Forces Korea, Defense Secretary Ash Carter said.

Air Force Maj. Gen. Thomas W. Bergeson, director of the Air Force secretary's legislative liaison, has been promoted to the rank of lieutenant general and nominated to be deputy USFK commander, Carter said in a statement.

If confirmed, Bergeson will succeed Lt. Gen. Terrence J. O'Shaughnessy.

About 28,500 American troops are stationed in South Korea to deter North Korean aggression, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended in a truce, not a peace treaty, leaving the divided peninsula still technically at war.

jschang@yna.co.kr
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