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| Camp Humphreys, a U.S. Forces Korea base in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, is seen in this file photo. Yonhap |
South Korea and the United States are expected to strike a deal this week on splitting the cost for the stationing of American troops here as the allies consider the need to work closely together to denuclearize North Korea, a diplomatic source said Sunday.
The U.S. will likely accept South Korea's request for a contribution of less than US$1 billion (1.1 trillion won) in 2019.
Seoul plans to sign a one-year contract as Washington demands, according to the source.
Last year, South Korea paid around 960 billion won for the 28,500-strong U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) under a five-year deal signed in 2014.
Senior diplomats of the two sides had ten rounds of face-to-face talks on the Special Measures Agreement last year but failed to reach a compromise.
The Trump administration has called for a sharp rise in Seoul's share. It initially asked Seoul to pay up to $1.2 billion a year, saying the minimum contribution should be $1 billion.
South Korea, however, has maintained that the scale of its contribution should not exceed 1 trillion won ($893 million), a de-facto "psychological Maginot Line" for its people.
It wanted the contract term to be at least three years to avoid frequent negotiations on money.
"The U.S. has made a concession on the total amount (of South Korea's contribution) and the two nations have narrowed differences, because they considered the importance of the South Korea-U.S. alliance," the source said.
In particular, the two sides hope to focus efforts on dealing with the North Korea issue in advance of a second North Korea-U.S. summit to be held late this month, the source added.
Political parties were divided in response to the news of the imminent agreement.
The ruling Democratic Party described it as a "positive and wise" decision, taking note of the size of Seoul's payment.
"It's assessed that the U.S. side has made much of public opinion (in South Korea) that the government should not accept a unilateral demand by the U.S.," the party's spokesman Lee Hae-sik said.
The main opposition conservative Liberty Korea Party (LKP) took a dim view of the reported contract period.
If that is the case, South Korea and the U.S. will soon face a "burden again of having prickly bargaining for their own interests," its spokesman Yoon Young-seok said.
"South Korea-U.S. defense-cost talks subject to a renewal every year is not helpful to the relations between the two sides. It even raises the possibility of a deepening of a rift in the alliance," he added. (Yonhap)
