The United States and South Korea could start talks on a new Special Measures Agreement (SMA), the cost-sharing deal on maintaining the 28,500-strong US Forces Korea (USFK) troops on the peninsula, in mid-September, an official in the South Korean Foreign Ministry said Thursday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 22nd August, 2019) The United States and South Korea could start talks on a new Special Measures Agreement (SMA), the cost-sharing deal on maintaining the 28,500-strong US Forces Korea (USFK) troops on the peninsula, in mid-September, an official in the South Korean Foreign Ministry said Thursday.
The current one-year accord expires at the end of 2019. US President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed that Seoul must pay "substantially more money" to the United States for keeping its military on the peninsula.
"I predict that SMA talks could open in mid-September at the earliest, after the Chuseok [autumn harvest, celebrated on September 13 this year] holiday," the official said, as cited by the Yonhap news agency.
The official expressed hope that Seoul and Washington would set the date for talks in the near future.
Seoul has been sharing the cost for hosting some 28,500 US troops as part of the SMA since 1991.�Under the expiring deal, South Korean taxpayers pay 1.04 trillion won (over $915 million) for non-personnel related costs of stationing the troops, while last year, the country contributed 960 billion won, which amounted to around 41 percent of the total stationing cost.
