"Thankful for Agreement to Pay Significant Money" Trump Pressures Again on Defense Costs

Indicating Agreement on Major Increase in Our Defense Cost Sharing
US Officials Acknowledge $1.3 Billion Demand, Pressuring Final Amount
Our Side's 13% Requested Amount and

[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy New York=Correspondent Baek Jong-min] U.S. President Donald Trump once again claimed that our government has agreed to the South Korea-U.S. defense cost-sharing negotiations. A U.S. official acknowledged the demand for $1.3 billion and pressured our government to accept their final offer.

President Trump's remarks came on the 7th (local time) during a meeting with Texas Governor Greg Abbott at the White House to discuss the response to the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19). President Trump said, "I just want to tell you that we have been protecting very wealthy countries for free, for free, or for almost no money," suddenly bringing up the issue of defense cost-sharing.

President Trump continued, "South Korea has agreed to pay us a significant amount of money," adding, "We are very grateful."

President Trump emphasized, "We are spending $1.5 trillion. We are spending all this money," and said, "If we are going to protect other countries, they too must respect us by paying their share."

President Trump said, "Honestly, this country has been taken advantage of by both allies and enemies," and added, "But not anymore."

On this day, President Trump's remarks were interpreted as further pressure on our government following his mention in a media interview on the 29th of last month that South Korea agreed to pay a large amount. In that interview, President Trump said, "They (South Korea) agreed to pay a lot of money. They are paying more than they did when I took office," and added, "We can reach an agreement. They (South Korea) want an agreement."

In response, our government stated that the 13% increase proposal is the final offer and that no agreement has been reached, but President Trump once again treated the negotiation settlement as a fait accompli and pressured our side for an increase.

On this day, the U.S. side openly disclosed that they demanded $1.3 billion from our side. A senior official of the Trump administration responded to a question about whether the U.S. proposed $1.3 billion as South Korea's defense cost-sharing by saying, "Yes. $1.3 billion."

This is about a 50% increase compared to the total amount of South Korea's contribution (1.0389 trillion won) under the 10th agreement, which was agreed upon early last year for a one-year term.

In last year's negotiations, our side withdrew the position of not exceeding 1 trillion won and agreed to 1.0389 trillion won. At that time, the U.S. side's demand was $1 billion. The U.S. side presented a final offer that added $300 million to the amount demanded in the 10th negotiation.

In particular, the official expressed the view that compared to the initially proposed $5 billion by the U.S., the current offer is "quite reasonable." He emphasized that this is the "final offer" and said, "We have lowered it too much."

The official also expressed dissatisfaction with our government's stance of maintaining a 13% increase. He claimed, "While we were lowering our demands, what did the South Korean government do? Nothing," emphasizing that they significantly lowered their demand and expressing dissatisfaction with South Korea's position.

A U.S. State Department spokesperson also said, "We will not publicly confirm or comment on alliance discussions," but asserted, "Our long-standing view is that South Korea can and should contribute a fairer share."

He added, "We have shown considerable flexibility in recent weeks to reach a mutually acceptable agreement," and said, "The South Korean government also needs to compromise more."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.