The U.S. Department of Defense has denied reports that the U.S. plans to relocate U.S. Marines from the southern Japanese island of Okinawa to South Korea.

Defense Department spokeswoman Cmdr. Leslie Hull-Ryde said on Thursday that Seoul and Washington never discussed such a plan.

The U.S. and Japan recently reversed their agreement to transfer eight thousand U.S. Marines stationed in Okinawa to the U.S. territory of Guam, which sparked speculations that part of the Marines will be relocated to another Asian region.