Seoul and Washington have advanced in negotiations on sharing the cost for maintaining US troops on the Korean Peninsula, a senior US official said on Thursday, adding that both sides expect to resume talks next week
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 09th January, 2020) Seoul and Washington have advanced in negotiations on sharing the cost for maintaining US troops on the Korean Peninsula, a senior US official said on Thursday, adding that both sides expect to resume talks next week.
In mid-December, negotiation teams from both countries gathered for the last time before the last Special Measures Agreement (SMA) expired on December 31. Previously, in mid-November, the parties broke off these talks in Seoul after South Korea failed to meet the US request for "equitable burden sharing." According to media reports, Washington pressed Seoul to pay nearly $5 billion in 2020 for hosting the United States Forces Korea (USFK).
"I would assess that we are certainly a little further afield than we were during the last round," the State Department official told reporters, as quoted by the South Korean Yonhap news agency.
According to the official, the progress was made as Seoul recognized how "stalwart" the US was "in seeking partnership on burden-sharing."
"While we are having a very serious conversation with our South Korean counterparts about what this means as far as their ability to further share the burden on our presence on the peninsula, it does not mean we're walking away from our alliance," the official said, adding that the alliance with Seoul is "ironclad."
The 28,500-strong USFK contingent has been present in South Korea since 1991. Scattered across the country, the military has been occupying some of the most valuable real estates in prime locations such as Seoul. The SMA stipulates that the costs of stationing the troops be shared between Washington and Seoul, but the two countries have drastically disagreed on how much each side should contribute.
