U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz has suggested that Washington's plan to move 3,600 of its troops in South Korea to Iraq may lead to the reduction of U.S. troops in the Korean Peninsula.

Speaking before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Wolfowitz said Tuesday that the troop redeployment plans are part of a global realignment of US forces that has been under consideration for months.

He said the U.S. would also abandon the so-called "tripwire" role long played by U.S. troops along the demilitarized zone in South Korea, calling it "obsolete and counterproductive.