Defense cost deal reached in principle: US State Department

The U.S. Forces Korea's Camp Humphreys headquarters in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province / Korea Times

By Kim Bo-eun

South Korea and the United States appear to have nearly concluded a new deal on defense costs the former will pay for U.S. troops here.

The U.S. State Department was cited by Yonhap News Agency as saying in an email that a deal has been reached “in principle,” and the two sides are focusing on working out the details as quickly as possible.

CNN also reported Washington and Seoul had reached a “preliminary agreement” under which South Korea would pay close to $1 billion (1.13 trillion won) for stationing around 30,000 U.S. troops here.

South Korea's foreign ministry has not yet confirmed these reports.

The CNN report said this would be a one-year agreement with a possible one-year extension. It appears the U.S. accepted South Korea's call to cap its contributions to below 1 trillion won, while the U.S. insisted that the deal expire after only one year. This would allow Washington to call for additional increases in the amount South Korea would pay for the following year.

The previous SMA agreement stipulated the amount of burden South Korea would shoulder from 2014 to 2018.

The CNN report, however, stated it was unclear if Trump signed off on the potential deal, and that the National Security Council did not respond on the matter.

Bilateral talks for the 10th Special Measures Agreement (SMA) began in March last year with the aim of reaching a deal by the end of the year, but the two sides failed to produce an agreement, due to differences over the amount Seoul would pay.

The first SMA was signed in 1991, and it has been renewed eight times, every two to five years. Under the deal in 1991, South Korea shouldered $150 million (167.8 billion won). This grew to 960 billion won in 2018, according to data from the foreign ministry.

Meanwhile, U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun said last week the withdrawal of U.S. troops from South Korea was not being discussed with North Korea. This came in response to concerns that the U.S. president could make that offer at his summit with the North Korean leader later this month. Trump has consistently stated the U.S. is paying too much to keep its troops stationed abroad.

In an interview on CBS aired Sunday, local time, Trump said there were no plans to pull out troops.