Ministry of National Defense: "Biden Administration Did Not Mention Offshore Asset Costs in Defense Cost-Sharing Talks"

[Asia Economy Yang Nak-gyu, Military Specialist Reporter]The Ministry of National Defense announced on the 10th that regarding the conclusion of the Special Measures Agreement (SMA) negotiations on defense cost-sharing, the Biden administration did not mention maintenance of U.S. military forces outside the Korean Peninsula or the costs of rotational deployment of U.S. forces in Korea at all.

An official from the Ministry of National Defense stated in a supplementary explanation related to the conclusion of the 11th SMA that there was no discussion at all about U.S. military assets outside the Korean Peninsula (extraterritorial) during the 9th meeting of the 11th SMA held from the 5th to the 7th.

When asked whether the Trump administration’s demands for operational costs of U.S. forces, maintenance costs for assets outside the Korean Peninsula, and purchases of U.S.-made weapons were specified in this agreement, the official explained, "The Trump administration initially demanded three items (wages for Korean workers of U.S. Forces Korea, military construction costs, and logistics support costs) plus those additional parts, but our side did not accept them," adding, "There were no disagreements related to that this time."

When asked whether the costs for rotational deployment of U.S. forces in Korea were included, the Ministry of National Defense official also said, "They were not included."

He added, "For example, during joint exercises, U.S. military fighter jets can come from outside the region, and maintenance costs for those jets within the territory were previously paid from defense costs," and said, "There will be discussions on whether to increase or decrease such parts in the future," emphasizing, "There was no discussion on deployment costs of extraterritorial assets."

Regarding the payment of wages to Korean workers employed by U.S. Forces Korea, the Ministry of National Defense explained that this year’s labor costs will be paid on the 1st of next month.

The Ministry of National Defense official said, "Typically, labor costs are paid three times in April, June, and August, but since it takes about two months from the provisional signing of the agreement to its enforcement, unpaid leave occurs," and added, "We plan to prepay the 2021 labor costs as of April 1 after going through National Assembly consultations."

In particular, regarding the defense cost-sharing funds executed by the U.S. before the SMA negotiations were concluded last year, it was explained, "We prepaid 300 billion KRW for unpaid leave workers’ wages, and only ongoing project costs (400 billion KRW) were executed for construction and logistics sectors."

The Ministry of National Defense explained that last year, since the negotiations were not concluded, no funds were executed for new projects.

Regarding how the Korean side verifies the use of defense cost-sharing funds used by U.S. Forces Korea for military construction and logistics support, a Ministry of National Defense official explained, "At the working level, the 'Joint Military Construction Cooperation Group' and the 'Joint Logistics Support Cooperation Group' are formed to consult."

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