S. Korea is not 'free rider' as Trump claims

By Rachel Lee

While U.S. Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump wants South Korea to foot the bill for American troops here, Seoul has increased its payment nine times since the cost-sharing treaty was signed 23 years ago.

Last year, South Korea paid 932 billion won ($806 million) for the 28,500 U.S. troops here, which the government says was about 50 percent of the total cost estimated to be around 2 trillion won.

There is the possibility that the U.S. may face calls to withdraw its troops from South Korea, if the billionaire property tycoon becomes president and renews his demand, as Seoul believes 2 trillion won is too much of a burden for the country.

Since the Special Measures Agreement signed in 1991 between the two allies, Seoul has continued to increase the payment for the U.S. troops stationed in the country. In 1991, Seoul paid only 150 million won.

In 2014, Seoul and Washington renewed the cost-sharing accord, with Seoul agreeing to pay 920 billion won annually until 2018, up 5.8 percent from 2013.

On Trump’s campaign trail, the entrepreneur-turned politician has accused South Korea of getting a “free ride” with U.S help to defend it from North Korea while increasing America’s security burden. He said the amount that South Korea has paid was “peanuts” and argued that the country should pay “very substantially” to keep the American forces here.

But the fact that both sides have reaped benefits from the deployment of U.S. forces makes Trump’s claim unviable.

The American forces in the South have protected the South from the North’s nuclear threats. And at the same time, they have played a critical role in supporting U.S. national security through maintaining order in the Asia-Pacific region.

Not as extreme as Trump, there still seems to be a relatively common perception among U.S. politicians that its allies should bear more of the cost than they do now.

Ahead of the cost negotiations in 2013, the Senate Armed Services Committee said South Korea did not keep up with the increasing total cost for the U.S. troops. The U.S. military officials also requested that South Korea should pay over 50 percent of the total cost, according to the U.S. Congressional Research Service.

Government data shows that South Korea paid a lower proportion of the total cost for U.S. troops here than Japan, but more than Germany and other members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A total of 36,700 and 50,500 U.S. troops are stationed in Japan and Germany, respectively.

However, when it is measured as a percentage of a nation’s gross domestic product (GDP), Seoul holds the top place, the government said.

According to a report released by the National Assembly Budget Office in 2013, South Korea paid 836 billion won for the personnel cost for U.S. troops in 2012, which accounted for 0.068 percent of the nations’ GDP, whereas Japan paid 4.4 trillion won in the same year, which made up 0.064 percent of its GDP. Germany contributed 600 billion won in 2013, which was 0.016 percent of its GDP.

A government official said South Korea needs to “highlight other expenses that were previously excluded in the calculation, including costs associated with supporting KATUSA.” KATUSA, which stands for the Korean Augmentation to the United States Army, is a military program initiated during the Korean War in August 1950.