US and ROK Fail to Reach Agreement on USFK Cost Sharing
My theory on the current US-ROK cost sharing negotiations is that this will ultimately be tied to a successful second Trump-Kim summit and US dropping sanctions on North Korea. If the Trump administration drops sanctions I suspect that the Moon administration will cut a favorable US-ROK cost sharing deal to pay back President Trump. If sanctions are not dropped the Moon administration will likely continue to play hardball on this issue:
South Korea and the United States failed to reach a deal on sharing the cost of American troops stationed on the peninsula in formal negotiations last week, a government official here said Monday.
Senior diplomats of the two sides had three-day talks on the Special Measures Agreement (SMA) to set the amount of Seoul’s financial contributions for the 28,500-strong U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) in Honolulu, Hawaii. It was the ninth round of bargaining, as the existing accord, which took effect in 2014, is to expire at the end of this year.
“There was some progress, but no final agreement was reached,” the foreign ministry official told reporters on the condition of anonymity.
Differences remain over how much Seoul will pay and some other issues, although the work to draw up a joint statement moved forward in general, he added. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link and draw your own conclusions.
How about the US tell the ROK to pay 100% for their own defense, as it should be. Korea has been riding daddy warbucks’ coat tails for too long now.
Time for the US to start making noisss about leaving… See what that would do to Moon’s economy…
Maybe they’ll like their new Chinese overlords.
I was told in 1989 that by 2000 the USFK would no longer exist as South Korea would be able to defend herself, although the US might lease some land in the Southern part of the country long term as a strategic ally. Maybe it’s time to impliment that plan. Also as part of that deal, they get the property as is just like the agreement says, the envirowackos can clean it up themselves.
BS. The Koreans lie at every step. How do I know? their lips are moving.