US army chief of staff visited South Korea

SEOUL, July 30 (Yonhap) -- U.S. Army Chief of Staff Gen. Martin E. Dempsey made a two-day trip to South Korea earlier this week, the militaries of South Korea and the U.S. said Saturday. Dempsey, the nominee to become chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, arrived in South Korea on Thursday and held talks with the South Korea's JCS chairman and toured the inter-Korean border village of Panmunjom on Friday before returning home later that day, according to South Korea's military. Details of the meeting were not immediately available. South Korea said U.S. Army's top generals have typically visited South Korea at the end of terms. The U.S. Army said on its Web site that Dempsey also met with top U.S. military officials in South Korea and participated in a town hall meeting on Friday at Camp Humphreys, the future headquarters of U.S. forces in South Korea. The U.S. keeps some 28,500 troops in South Korea as a deterrent against North Korea, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War that ended in a cease-fire, leaving the two Koreas technically at war.