Seoul, Dec 27 (IANS): A former US Forces Korea (USFK) commander on Wednesday called for the deployment of a US tank battalion to South Korea to strengthen defence capabilities as he warned of North Korean military threats in the new year.

Retired General Burwell B. Bell, who led the USFK from 2006 to 2008, made the call in a New Year's message sent to the Korea-US Alliance Foundation, noting "escalating" challenges faced by the allies from North Korea.

"Clearly, the US needs to send a tank battalion to South Korea to fall in on prepositioned tank stocks and thus augment the Infantry Stryker brigade," he said in the message.

Last year, the US Army transitioned its rotational force in South Korea to a new brigade combat team employing the Stryker armored fighting vehicle from the existing one operating M-1 Abrams tanks and M-2 Bradley Fighting Vehicles, Yonhap news agency reported.

It, however, decided to maintain the previous armored combat team's equipment, including the Abrams tanks and the Bradleys, on the Korean Peninsula to ensure defence capabilities.

Bell said the next year will present the "most serious" threat to peace and stability on the peninsula since the North's 2010 sinking of a South Korean warship, which claimed 46 lives, calling on the allies to bolster readiness.

"The very best way to ensure continued peace and stability is for both Alliance members to stand together in public solidarity and simultaneously demonstrate enhanced military ground unit commitment and readiness," he added.

The USFK maintains some 28,500 troops as well as around 280 armored vehicles, according to South Korea's 2022 Defence White Paper.