Why don't we withdraw from South Korea?

[fskimospy]

Originally posted by: yllus
It's probably considered advantageous to have an enormous military force ready to rock in that particular area of the world (close to North Korea, China and Russia) under a fairly noble premise.

Guys, the answer to the question was in the very first response. Yllus has it dead on.

They are only there in a very nominal sense to protect South Korea from North Korea. We can use our bases there to project power over the region, it's strategic and located very near several of our adversaries, etc... etc.

North Korea's army, while large, isn't terribly dangerous for the same reason that China's army isn't very dangerous either: logistics. I would be flat out amazed if North Korea's army could operate outside of NK's borders for any extended period of time at this point. They just don't have the supply infrastructure to keep a modern army moving, especially with US air interdiction.