The United States has decided to reconsider its earlier decision to withhold some of its war stocks from possible purchase by South Korea, a Defense Ministry official said Tuesday.
The reserve munitions, mostly ammunition, are part of war reserves the United States maintains in South Korea under the War Reserve Stocks for Allies (WRSA) program.
Washington plans to terminate the decades-old program by the end of the year by selling most of its stock to Seoul.
``At the beginning of negotiations (in 2006), the U.S. side gave us a list of items that will be excluded from possible sale as they are still in use by U.S. forces waging wars throughout the world,’’ Col. Lee Ki-soo, director of the ammunition team at Defense Ministry, told a press briefing.
``The U.S. side said it will give what South Korea needs even if they are part of the items they earlier withheld," the ministry official added, noting Seoul will come up with a list of items and the amounts it wants to purchase before the end of next month.
The two sides are expected to exchange for the first time their prices in early April, said Lee, who led Seoul's delegation to the fourth round of negotiations held in Hawaii last week.
The U.S. currently has some 600,000 tons of munitions, worth some 3 trillion won ($ 3.17 billion) here under the WRSA program, begun in South Korea in 1974, according to ministry officials.
The program allows stockpiling of strategic munitions in the ally nations of the United States to allow quick access to war stocks by the U.S. and its allied forces in case of war, though the host nations must later pay for any munitions used by their troops.
Both Seoul and Washington agree any deal on South Korea's purchase of U.S. war reserves here will be mutually beneficial as it would provide an opportunity for Seoul to purchase ammunition for its weapons systems at low prices and for the U.S. to dispose of its aged munitions, which according to a 2007 study, would cost some $64 million to ship back to the U.S. (Yonhap)