WASHINGTON: The United States and South Korea have agreed to start early talks on the cost of keeping US forces in the country in a bid to reach an agreement ahead of the possible reelection of Donald Trump as president, US media reported on Tuesday.
The former President, who has emerged as the undisputed frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination in the presidential election 2024, had during his presidency alleged key Asian ally South Korea of “free-riding” on American military might and asked it pay as much as 5 billion dollars a year for the US troops deployment.
S Korea, US to Start Defence Talks Ahead of US Polls: Report
Talks for the Special Measures Agreement were gridlocked for several months under Trump’s administration, and the agreement was finalized when Seoul agreed to a 13.9 percent increase in its contribution, the biggest annual increase in nearly twenty years.
The deal is set to expire in the year 2025 and Yonhap news agency of South Korea as well as news service Newspim cited unnamed sources as saying Seoul and Washington had agreed to start discussion this year on extending the agreement to 2026 and beyond. Talks are often held just before the existing agreement is due to end.
South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Lim Soo-suk refused to comment on the media reports, saying the Seoul would prepare for the next talks in a “systematic, strategic” way. Similarly, the U.S. State Department also did not immediately reply to a request for remarks.
American forces are deployed in South Korea as part of both sides’ efforts to deter North Korea, which has been accelerating its missile and nuclear programmes.
South Korea started shouldering the costs of U.S. forces deployments, used to fund local labour, the construction of defense installations and other logistics support, in the early 1990s.
