CAMP RED CLOUD, SOUTH KOREA – The U.S. Embassy and U.S. Forces Korea are engaged in a host-nation notification process with South Korea’s government to convey information about inactivations and other details of the U.S. Army’s transformation in the country, USFK has said.

The restructuring of 2nd Infantry Division units began in October 2004, after a South Korean and U.S. government agreement to reduce U.S. forces on the Peninsula by 12,500 personnel, officials say.

“The shuffling of units we’ll experience in Korea this summer is part of the larger transformation of forces worldwide,” 8th Army spokesman Lt. Col Tom Budzyna said Wednesday. “Even though we may be moving on with the plan, the formal notification process gives the leaders of both nations the chance to review the decision.”

An instruction to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, which the 8th Army provided Stars and Stripes, states that host-nation notification doesn’t apply to ongoing unit rotations.

Notification “applies to introduction or removal of organizations where sensitivities of a (host nation) exist regarding the size of a unit, or for other reasons such as base access and/or use,” it stated.

Under the process, USFK notifies the South Korean Defense Ministry while the U.S. Embassy notifies the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Budzyna said.

After the South Korean government has been notified, the U.S. Secretary of Defense releases information about the changes to members of Congress and then the public, he added.