By Lee Tae-hoon
Washington pressured Seoul to raise its financial contribution to cover the cost of stationing American troops in Korea in 2008 while refusing to give an accurate estimate of its own expenditure, according to a WikiLeaks cable.
The document, classified as secret and written by then U.S. Ambassador to Korea Alexander Vershbow on April 28, 2008, gives a glimpse of what the negotiations between the two allies were like over Korea’s cost sharing in U.S. military spending here.
It said Jeon Jei-guk, the then deputy defense minister for policy, repeatedly demanded the provision of detailed information on the expenditure of U.S. Forces in Korea (USFK) to the U.S. delegation headed by David Sedney, then deputy assistant secretary of defense for East Asia.
But it was to no avail.
“Jeon argued that a more accurate calculation of Korea’s contribution to USFK’s non-personnel stationing costs (NPSC) is needed,” the dossier said giving details of the 17th Security Policy Initiative (SPI) talks in Seoul on April 8, 2008.
“(A U.S. embassy political officer replied) that the addition of more level of detail to the information already provided is not the solution to the current problem.”
The classified document shows that Jeon demanded an explanation to the claim of then USFK commander Gen. Burwell B. Bell that Korea’s contribution in 2007 represented less than 15 percent of total annual U.S. expenditure required to maintain American forces in South Korea.
Seoul provided 725.5 billion won ($644 million) in 2007 and agreed after the talks to increase its level of financial assistance in accordance with a rise in the consumer price index until 2013.
Jeon cast doubts about the accuracy of Bell’s calculation, since if he were right, the USFK spent more than 4.84 trillion won, a fifth of Korea’s total military spending on its 700,000 strong armed forces, for 28,500 servicemen.
Assuming Bell’s estimate is right, USFK spent roughly 170 million won on average on each serviceman.
Sedney, however, downplayed Jeon’s concerns, saying even if Korea increased its contribution to 884.8 billion won, or 50 percent of the USFK’s NPSC, “it would only cover 18 percent of the total cost borne by the U.S. to station forces in defense of Korea.”
“So don’t get too excited arguing about small parts of small amounts,” Sedney was quoted as telling Jeon.
He argued that Korea’s contribution to the NPSC covered only 41 percent of that total cost incurred by USFK in 2007 while refusing to provide further information.
The Korea Times requested the public relations office of the USFK several times to provide detailed information of the USFK budget since July last year, but no explanation has been provided.
Korea’s cost sharing rose to 812.5 billion won last year although the USFK pulled out a battalion of Apache attack helicopters in 2009 to make the unit available for rotational deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan.
Washington is expected to demand a further increase in Seoul’s contribution to the USFK when the two sides sit down for cost-sharing negotiations this next year, given the U.S. has implemented huge defense cuts.