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| Military vehicles are parked inside Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, last month. Camp Humphreys is home to United States Forces Korea headquarters. / Yonhap |
By Lee Min-hyung
South Korea has formally signed a deal with the United States to share cost for the upkeep of the 28,500-strong U.S. Forces Korea (USFK).
Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha signed the Special Measures Agreement (SMA) with U.S. Ambassador to South Korea, Harry Harris, Friday, ending an almost year-long negotiation.
Under the 2019 SMA, Seoul will pay 1.04 trillion won ($915 million), up 8.2 percent from the previous year. The deal is valid for just one year, so both sides will soon resume negotiations for the 2020 revision. The two countries used to sign up to five-year contracts before the latest SMA.
The 2019 SMA will take effect upon ratification by the National Assembly. The government plans to finish the process by the end of next month.
U.S. President Donald Trump has increasingly pressured the South to pay more of the USFK upkeep costs. He has repeatedly expressed dissatisfaction that U.S. allies, including the South, do not pay properly for the defense cost sharing, as part of his America First policy.
He is also taking issue with the Seoul-Washington joint military exercises, expressing his hope to downsize them due to the cost.
"We spend hundreds of millions of dollars on those exercises, and I hated to see it," Trump said in a press conference after his second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-in in Hanoi last week.
"I was sort of the opinion that South Korea should help us with that. You know, we're protecting South Korea." said Trump.
On Monday, the allies also decided to not hold two of their annual large-scale military exercises, Key Resolve and Foal Eagle, and replace them with a new exercise named "Dong Maeng" (meaning 'alliance' in English). It will be a smaller-scale exercise compared with the previous drills.
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