During his five-day visit to the United States, Cho will also meet US Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Colin Powell, the defense ministry said.

Discussions Friday between Cho and Rumsfeld will focus on how to strenghten military ties between the allies following the realignment of US troops in South Korea, it said.

The repositioning of 37,000 American troops based here under a mutual defense pact has been proposed as part of US plans to enhance their war capability in South Korea

The United States and South Korea agreed in early June to gradually reposition US forces away from the inter-Korean border.

Cho will brief Rumsfeld on South Korean plans to fill the vacuum in the border area left by the realignment of 15,000 US soldiers assigned to the US 2nd Infantry Division, Yonhap news agency said.

Lieutenant General Charles Campbell, commander of the US Eighth Army, confirmed at a seminar here Thursday that the realignment would go ahead.

"Although no timetable had been set, both governments have agreed to relocate the bulk of the US Yongsan Garrison and to reposition the US 2nd Infantry Division," the commander said.

The US garrison at Yongsan base has long been a irritant in South Korea-US ties because of its location on prime real estate in the heart of the South Korean capital.

The United States plans to reduce the number of major installations in South Korea from 41 to 23 and return roughly 50 percent of the land it currently uses to South Korea by 2011.

Campbell said the military alliance between Seoul and Washington "has proved flexible enough to accommodate the great changes that have occurred" in Northeast Asia.

"Once again the US-(SKorea) military relationship is entering an era of realignment," Campbell said, citing increased war capability brought about by "precision guided munitions and near real-time communications."

The commander said South Korea and the United States should be ready for the collapse of the Stalinist regime in Pyongyang.

"Not only does the alliance have to plan for a seemingly more difficult military threat, but we must also give thought to the alternative -- the collapse of the regime due to a struggle for succession or economic collapse."

US ground forces have been deployed as a trip wire along the border between North and South since the 1950-1953 Korean War, ensuring that an invasion from the North would immediately draw the United States into the conflict.

Washington argues that the trip wire analogy is outdated and that realignment will enhance US combat potential.

The US military presence in South Korea was challenged last year by massive anti-US protests following the deaths of two girls in a road accident involving a US military vehicle.

Protests have since subsided amid a prolonged stand-off over North Korea's nuclear weapons drive.

WAR.WIRE