The Pentagon has reaffirmed its intention to maintain the current U.S. troop level in South Korea.

U.S. Department of Defense press secretary John Kirby on Friday confirmed that there's no plans or intentions to change the alliance posture in any way.

He added that any changes at all, noting he wasn't predicting any, will always be done as an alliance decision in lockstep with South Korean allies.

The remark comes after the U.S. Senate recently passed the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2022. The bill pushes for the U.S. Forces Korea troop level to remain intact, but does not limit the use of defense spending for a troop reduction as it did in previous years. 

U.S. officials earlier said the limit was removed simply because it was longer needed.

Kirby also mentioned the allies' agreement during the December 2 Security Consultative Meeting to maintain the current troop level of some 28-thousand-500 U.S. forces.