US Elections 2020: Joe Biden vows not to 'extort' South Korea with threats of troop withdrawal

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden pledged not to use the threat of cutting US troop levels in South Korea as a bargaining chip, after the Trump administration has demanded Seoul pay far more for American protection.

Biden said if he wins, he won't be “extorting Seoul with reckless threats to remove our troops,” according to a special contribution he made to South Korea's Yonhap News Agency published on Friday.

“I'll engage in principled diplomacy and keep pressing toward a denuclearized North Korea and a unified Korean Peninsula, while working to reunite Korean-Americans separated from loved ones in North Korea for decades,” he said. The comments come just days after the US for the first time withheld its commitment to maintaining troop levels in South Korea.