According to KBS, it will be a multi-year agreement that will increase South Korea’s contribution to pay for the presence of US troops by about 13%
The Republic of Korea and the US have come close to reaching an agreement to share the cost of maintaining US troops on the Korean Peninsula. The KBS TV and radio channel reported this on Friday, citing several sources familiar with the matter.
They said an agreement could be signed within weeks. It would be a multi-year agreement that would increase Seoul’s contribution to pay for the presence of US troops by about 13 percent. This is the increase in its share of costs that the South Korean side agreed to last year, KBS notes.
The text of the document may also include a clause on a mandatory increase in South Korea’s defence budget and the purchase of certain military equipment from the US, the channel points out.
Since 2018, Washington has been demanding that Seoul increase its share of contributions to the US contingent in the Republic of Korea, which has 28,500 troops. Thus, South Korean spending on joint defence in 2019 was increased by 8.2 percent, to 1.04 trillion won ($915 million). In November 2019, it was reported that Washington had demanded that Seoul increase contributions almost five-fold, to $4.7 billion. It was also noted that the United States insisted that South Korea pay the cost of maintaining some US military units outside the Korean peninsula as well.
Negotiations for a new agreement began in September 2019. At the end of March 2020, the parties tentatively agreed to increase South Korea’s share by 13%. However, the final agreement was not reached due to the opposition of the then US President Donald Trump.
US troops have been in South Korea since the Korean War (1950-1953). They are governed by an agreement on mutual defence assistance signed by the two countries on 26 January 1950.