Trump Ultimately Mentions Han Defense Costs... Tariff Offensive Pressures with 'Package Deal'

Trump Links Defense Cost-Sharing Issue
to Question on Reducing Overseas Troops

U.S. President Donald Trump expressed his intention to discuss South Korea's defense cost-sharing, including the cost of stationing U.S. troops in Korea, as a 'package' linked with trade issues such as reciprocal tariffs. This signals a comprehensive 'deal' connecting security, economy, and industry, suggesting that the scope of negotiations is likely to expand.

AP Yonhap News

On the 9th (local time), during a signing ceremony for an executive order held in the White House Oval Office, President Trump was asked whether he plans to reduce U.S. troops stationed overseas, including in Europe. He replied, "It depends on the situation," adding, "We pay for troops in Europe, but we don't get much reimbursement for that. The same applies to Korea." He further stated, "We want to do the right thing globally and help other countries as much as possible, but first, we have to take care of America."

President Trump said, "This is unrelated to trade, but we will treat it as part of (trade negotiations)" and explained, "Because it makes sense to bundle each country into one package in negotiations. It's clean and nice."

Earlier, White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt responded to a question at a briefing about whether other agendas could be included in trade negotiations by saying, "President Trump will take a tailored approach," and added, "If that means overseas aid and costs related to U.S. troop stationing, it could be part of the negotiations."

Additionally, after a phone call with Acting President and Prime Minister Han Duck-soo the previous day, President Trump posted on his social media platform Truth Social, stating, "We discussed payments related to the large-scale military protection provided to Korea," and claimed, "We are negotiating with many other countries on issues not covered by trade and tariffs, just like with Korea. 'One-stop shopping' is a beautiful and efficient process." This indicated that South Korea's defense cost-sharing issue could be comprehensively discussed alongside tariffs and other trade issues.

However, the South Korean government generally treats trade and security issues separately. As President Trump himself mentioned that day, tariffs and defense costs are fundamentally different matters, so linking the two is not desirable and is expected to complicate calculations, likely prolonging the time needed to reach an agreement.

Nevertheless, with President Trump strongly expressing his intention to bring security and trade issues together to the negotiation table, the talks between South Korea and the U.S. are expected to become more complex. South Korea now requires a highly strategic response to deal with President Trump's proposal for negotiations encompassing security, economy, and industry. Especially since President Trump decided to focus his front on China and to postpone the application of reciprocal tariffs on countries like South Korea for 90 days, South Korea needs a longer-term, whole-of-government response. This is also expected to become a key issue in the presidential election scheduled for June 3.

Since his campaign for last year's presidential election, President Trump has referred to South Korea as a 'Money Machine' and a 'wealthy country,' arguing for a significant increase in South Korea's defense cost-sharing for U.S. troops stationed there. There are growing concerns that during talks to reduce or eliminate the reciprocal tariffs on Korea (25%, with a basic tariff rate of 10% applied during the 90-day postponement), the U.S. side may demand not only the removal of non-tariff barriers and industrial cooperation such as shipbuilding and LNG purchases but also an increase in defense cost-sharing, making it difficult for South Korea to gain the upper hand in negotiations.

Last October, the two countries signed a Special Measures Agreement (SMA) on defense cost-sharing during the previous Joe Biden administration, setting the defense cost-sharing amount to 1.5192 trillion won, an 8.3% increase from the previous year, effective from 2026, and agreeing to reflect the Consumer Price Index (CPI) increase when raising the cost-sharing amount annually until 2030.

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