The United States and South Korea have broken off their defense cost talks in Seoul after the latter failed to meet a request for "equitable burden sharing," US negotiator James P. DeHart said on Tuesday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 19th November, 2019) The United States and South Korea have broken off their defense cost talks in Seoul after the latter failed to meet a request for "equitable burden sharing," US negotiator James P. DeHart said on Tuesday.
The talks, which started in Seoul on Monday, were due to last two days. Last week, media reports emerged that Washington pressed Seoul to pay nearly $5 billion in 2020 for hosting the United States Forces Korea (USFK).
"Unfortunately, the proposals that were put forward by the Korean team were not responsive to our request for fair and equitable burden sharing. As a result, we cut short our participation in the talks today in order to give the Korean side some time to reconsider," DeHart said, as quoted by South Korea's state-run Yonhap news agency.
South Korea's Foreign Ministry, in turn, pointed to the US demand for a sharp increase in Seoul's burden-sharing as the main reason, according to the news agency.
"The U.S. side holds the position that the share of the defense cost should increase drastically by establishing a new article (in the cost-sharing deal), while our side maintains the increase should be within the range that is mutually acceptable within the framework of the SMA that the South and the U.S. have agreed on over the last 28 years," the ministry said, as quoted by the news outlet.
The current bill for the US military presence for South Korea stands at $870 million, the media said.
