South Korean protesters outside the US embassy in Seoul. Photo: EPA
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https://scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/2185586/south-korea-will-pay-us890-million-host-american-troops-year East Asia
South Korea will pay US$924 million to host American troops this year after Donald Trump demanded more money
- The agreement would expire in one year, and is less than the US$1 billion the US demanded
- About 28,500 US troops are stationed in South Korea, where the United States has maintained a military presence since the 1950-53 Korean war
About 28,500 US troops are stationed in South Korea, where the United States has maintained a military presence since the 1950-53 Korean war. File photo: AP
South Korea and the United States struck a new deal Sunday on how much Seoul should pay for the US military presence on its soil, after previous rounds of failed negotiations caused worries about their decades-long alliance.
The new deal must still be approved by South Korea’s parliament, but it would boost this year’s contribution to about 1.04 trillion won (US$924 million), Seoul’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Last year, South Korea provided about 960 billion won, roughly 40 per cent of the cost of the deployment of 28,500 US soldiers whose presence is meant to deter aggression from North Korea. US President Donald Trump has said South Korea should pay more.
The allies had failed to reach a new cost-sharing plan during some 10 rounds of talks. On Sunday, Seoul’s Foreign Ministry said the countries signed a short-term agreement.
Unlike past agreements, which lasted for five years, this one is expected to expire in a year, potentially forcing both sides back to the bargaining table within months.
Some conservatives in South Korea voiced concerns over a weakening alliance with the United States amid a stalemate in negotiations with North Korea to deprive it of its nuclear weapons.
They said Trump might use the failed military cost-sharing negotiations as an excuse to pull back some of US troops in South Korea, as a bargaining chip in talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
Trump told CBS’ Face the Nation last Sunday that he had no plans to withdraw troops from South Korea.
Trump announced last week that he will sit down with Kim for a second summit in Hanoi, Vietnam in late February.
Their first summit in Singapore last June resulted in Kim’s vague commitment to “complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula”, a term that his propaganda machine previously used when it argued it would only denuclearise after the US withdraws its troops from South Korea.
Yonhap said the US had previously demanded 1.13 trillion won (US$1 billion) from South Korea.
The US military arrived in South Korea to disarm Japan, which colonised the Korean peninsula from 1910-45, following its second world war defeat.
Most US troops were withdrawn in 1949 but they returned the next year to fight alongside South Korea in the 1950-53 Korean war.
South Korea began paying for the US military deployment in the early 1990s, after rebuilding its war-devastated economy.
The big US military presence in South Korea is a symbol of the countries’ alliance, forged in blood during the war, but also a source of long-running anti-American sentiments.
Associated Press, Reuters