South Korea and US Start Defense Cost Talks Amid Fears of Trump

(Patria) - South Korea and the United States have agreed to start negotiations on how to share the costs of maintaining US forces in the country in an attempt to reach an agreement before the possible re-election of Donald Trump as president, local media report.

Trump, who is the favorite for the Republican presidential nomination for the 2024 elections, during his presidency accused Seoul of "free-riding" on American military power and demanded that it pay as much as $5 billion annually for the deployment of the US military, Reuters reported.

Negotiations on the Special Measures Agreement were stalled for months under the Trump administration, and a deal was finalized when South Korea agreed to a 13.9% increase in its contribution, the largest annual increase in nearly two decades.

The agreement is set to expire in 2025, and the Yonhap news agency, as well as the Newspim news service, cited unnamed diplomatic sources who said South Korea and the United States have agreed to start negotiations this year on extending the agreement to 2026 and beyond. Negotiations are usually held shortly before the existing agreement expires.

A spokesperson for the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs declined to comment on the reports, saying the government would prepare for the next negotiations in a "systematic, strategic" manner.

A spokesperson for the US State Department said a delegation from the Office of Security Negotiations and Agreements visited South Korea from December 11-17, 2023, to discuss the implementation of the current 11th Special Measures Agreement (SMA).

US troops are deployed in South Korea as part of both countries' efforts to deter North Korea. South Korea began bearing the costs of US deployment in the early 1990s, funding local labor, military facility construction, and other logistical support.