South Korea-US Discusses Defense Fee Distribution This Week

ILLUSTRATION/PHOTO via Instagram @usnavy

JAKARTA - South Korea and the United States will hold the first round of negotiations in Hawaii this week to discuss the distribution of maintenance costs for American troops stationed in South Korea.

The talks will take place in Honolulu, Hawaii, from Tuesday to Thursday (local time) led by Lee Tae-woo, South Korea's head of negotiators, and his US counterpart Linda Specht, "said South Korea's Foreign Ministry in an official statement in Seoul, Monday, April 22.

It will be their first meeting since Seoul and Washington appointed the two diplomats early last month to lead negotiations on determining how much funding Seoul has to bear for the deployment of US troops in Korea (USFK) with a magnitude of 28,500 personnel.

The government will continue consulting with the position that our defense costs division must be carried out at a reasonable level to create conditions for the deployment of stable US troops in South Korea and to strengthen the defense posture with allies, the ministry said.

The launch of the negotiations was carried out earlier than expected because allies had agreed to encourage the start of early negotiations amid speculation that Donald Trump would be re-elected. The former US President is known for his strong bargaining against the deal.

During Trump's presidency, negotiations on the Special Action Agreement (SMA) were the main debate as Trump demanded a major increase in USFK costs for South Korea. He reportedly asked for a five-fold increase to 5 billion US dollars (Rp 81.2 trillion).

Based on the latest and 11th high schools, South Korea agreed to increase payments by 13.9 percent from 2019 to 1.03 billion US dollars (IDR 16.7 trillion) in 2021. SMA will now end at the end of 2025 within six years.

As for 1991, Seoul has borne some of the costs below high school for USFK Korean workers, military installation construction, such as barracks, and training facilities, education, operations and communications, as well as other logistical support.