Why Left Wing Group is Wrong to Claim that South Korea is Paying 72% of USFK Cost Sharing

Here is another likely example of the Moon administration sending their left wing activists groups to advocate against USFK on their behalf:

South Korea is shouldering 73 percent of the cost for stationing U.S. troops here, a civic group claimed Tuesday, citing data from the governments of both nations.

Solidarity for Peace and Reunification of Korea (SPARK) said South Korea covered 72.6 percent of the costs for keeping 28,500 U.S. troops here in 2016, after analyzing defense expenditures of both South Korea and the U.S.

According to official announcements by Seoul and Washington, the total costs of the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) presence here add up to around $2 billion (2.17 trillion won), of which South Korea pays 42 percent.

However, the civic group stated taking into account the sites South Korea provides for military bases, the percentage rises above 70 percent.

The group said South Korea paid around 3.39 trillion won in direct and indirect expenses for the USFK last year, according to data from the defense ministry.

Direct costs paid by South Korea for the USFK were 1.81 trillion won. This included 944.1 billion won in costs paid under the Special Measures Agreement (SMA), 666.7 billion won in expenses for relocating personnel to Pyeongtaek and 184.3 billion won for repairing military facilities. Also included in the expenses were managing the Korean Augmentation To the United States Army (KATUSA) and conducting environmental studies on bases.

Indirect costs totaled 1.57 trillion won ― most of which accounted for South Korea providing land for U.S. military use. The civic group said the land value exceeds 1.16 trillion won.

It also looked into expenditures of the U.S. Department of Defense to reach the conclusion the cost-bearing ratio is 72.6 to 27.4.

“The U.S. government must stop forcing South Korea to raise its portion of costs, and must immediately return accumulated funds and illegally reaped interest earnings,” the group said.

It also demanded the U.S. stop calling for Korea to cover more costs of deploying U.S. strategic assets and maintaining a THAAD battery here.  [Korea Times]

By not including the cost of deploying US strategic assets to the peninsula this totally discredits what this group is claiming.  They are more than happy to include indirect costs for Korea in their analysis, but not indirect costs for the US military.  Imagine how much their analysis would change if the cost of an aircraft carrier or stealth bombers when they are deployed to the peninsula is included.  Better yet what about the cost of all the space based assets that USFK uses to protect South Korea that they get the benefit of and don’t have to pay for?

Someone at the Pentagon involved in the cost sharing talks should run all these numbers to counter what the left wing group SPARK is putting out.

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Doug
Doug
6 years ago

The lost of American life’s and the cost maintaining our troops and support in South Korea all these years funded by the American taxpayers I figure the Koreans owe the United States a ton of money.

setnaffa
setnaffa
6 years ago

How much US money do GIs, dependents, and “camp-followers” like me (who really only spend money in Itaewon or Sinjiang shopping areas) spend in Korea?

Nonetheless, as GI points out, communists and other leftists lie more easily and more frequently than they breathe.

Smokes
Smokes
6 years ago

Funny how the KT just runs the claims as-is and taps not a single key to check if any of it is true. Here’s a hint KT: “and must immediately return accumulated funds and illegally reaped interest earnings” <- that sentence right there.

I really don't care if they did shoulder 7x%, it's their f'ing country, shoulder it all or step up with your own forces. 🙄

J6Junkie
J6Junkie
6 years ago

They could keep that 72% and still lose a war to the Parasite Boys in 72 hours.

Rascal1212
Rascal1212
6 years ago

As usual it’s BS. Someone deliberately focused and misrepresented the LCS portion of the SMA/Burdensharing. It does not represent the total contribution which hovers around 50%.

Rascal1212
Rascal1212
6 years ago

OOPS…In this case LCS means Labor Cost Sharing. The US pays about 73% of Korean Saleries. That money comes out of the total burdensharing contribution

Flyingsword
Flyingsword
6 years ago

Korea should be paying 100%. They have gotten by on the cheap for far too long on the generosity of daddy war bucks. Time that this gravy train ends. What does that say of Korea that it doesn’t want to pay for the cost to defend their own country, sad.

Ole Tanker
Ole Tanker
6 years ago

Is there a report out there with transparency that shows actually who spends what on what? Or, is this just another game of he said she said?

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