By Kang Seung-woo

Seongnam Mayor Lee Jae-myung

Seongnam Mayor Lee Jae-myung, an outspoken liberal presidential contender, said Tuesday that South Korea should brace for a possible pullout of the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK).

He also claimed Seoul should not be intimidated by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's claims on defense costs, saying the country already pays much more than Japan and Germany do.

Lee, who belongs to the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), is emerging as a dark horse from the opposition bloc whose outspoken remarks have increasingly resonated with progressive voters in the wake of President Park Geun-hye's impeachment. According to most public polls on potential presidential candidates, he ranks third behind former DPK chairman Moon Jae-in and former U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

"We need to prepare ourselves in the event of a USFK withdrawal," Lee said in a radio interview.

"The USFK is not deployed here only for defense against a possible North Korean invasion. Its operational range is expanding beyond the Korean Peninsula to Northeast Asia. Depending on U.S. interests, it may be moved off the peninsula."

Currently, some 28,000 USFK troops are stationed here.

Last week, the U.S. magazine Foreign Policy said in an article that if Lee or Moon was elected president, they will let the USFK leave the peninsula without a fight, which made headlines in Korean news reports.

However, Lee said local media outlets misinterpreted the article.

"The latter part of the article regarding the pullout was left out," Lee said.

Mentioning a possible USFK withdrawal, the article also said, "If that were to happen, America's standing in the Pacific region would plummet."

Lee said the Korean military should boost its self-defense capacities in preparation for a possible pullout of the USFK that has been officially deployed here since the 1950s.

"We are heavily dependent on the USFK although our military expenses are at least six times higher than that of North Korea's. In addition, the South outranked the North in military power, according to a leading U.S. analytical agency," Lee said.

"Despite such advantages, some are still worried South Korea will not be able to defeat North Korea without the USFK if a war breaks out."

He also claimed South Korea should regain wartime operational control (OPCON) of its forces from the U.S., stressing that there is no independent country in the world that gives OPCON to another country. The timetable for OPCON transfer is estimated to be in the mid-2020s.

As Donald Trump is scheduled to take the oath of office as the 45th president of the United States, Jan. 20, there are growing concerns here that he may demand that South Korea pay more for the USFK presence.

During his election campaign last year, he criticized South Korea's "free-riding" on the U.S. defense budget, threatening to withdraw troops from the peninsula if Seoul does not pay its "fair share" of the costs.

However, Lee, dubbed "South Korea's Trump" by some, said South Korea should pay less of the defense-cost sharing with Washington, claiming that the USFK is stationed here for the U.S.'s own interests.

"South Korea's defense-sharing cost should be on a par with that of Japan," he said.

According to the South Korean government, it paid 932 billion won ($775 million) for U.S. troops here, which it says was about 50 percent of the total costs estimated to be around 2 trillion won.

"Germany and Japan pay 18 percent and 50 percent, respectively," he added.