Lee Min-hyung joined The Korea Times in 2014 and has worked as a journalist mainly in Korea’s finance, tech and automotive industry. He specializes in content creation, breaking news and in-depth analysis currently on transportation and mobility. You can reach him via mhlee@koreatimes.co.kr.
Moon rejects 'insulting' report for Trump
By Lee Min-hyung
U.S. President Donald Trump
By Lee Min-hyung
President Moon Jae-in has denied a media report that U.S. President Donald Trump demanded $1.2 billion (1.34 trillion won) annually from South Korea for defense costs when the leaders briefly met in Argentina in November.
The JoongAng Ilbo newspaper, citing sources, reported Trump came up with the amount during a meeting with Moon on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Buenos Aires.
“(From time to time), Trump mentioned the issue of the defense cost-sharing, but he never made remarks on the specific terms or amount,” presidential spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom quoted Moon as saying, Friday.
“No world leader speaks in such a manner,” Moon reportedly said. “The report could be an insult to Trump.”
Kim added Trump briefly mentioned the issue with a view to reaching a final consensus over the renewal of a defense cost sharing deal in a reasonable manner.
Seoul and Washington have engaged in talks on renewing the Special Measures Agreement (SMA), which expired in December, since March last year, but have failed to narrow their differences after 10 sets of talks.
Washington wants Seoul to pay more than the 960.2 billion won it spent last year, and to renew the SMA annually instead of the current five years.
Defense cost-sharing between Seoul and Washington has become an issue recently, as Trump has expressed outward dissatisfaction with the five-year contract.
This was seen as part of his “America First” policy. Since taking office in 2017, he has urged U.S. allies to pay more for defense cost-sharing.
Seoul was no exception. Trump wants South Korea to pay more for the 28,500 troops of the United States Forces Korea (USFK) stationed here.
In addition, he expressed discomfort over the annual Seoul-Washington joint military exercises. After the historic Washington-Pyongyang summit in June, Trump took issue with the drills, complaining about what he called Seoul's lighter cost burden for the exercises.
The latest in a series of Trump's outburst came last month on a visit to American troops in Iraq where he said the U.S. was “not being reimbursed” even when the country “fights for every nation on Earth.”