SEOUL — President Trump’s demands that South Korea take on far more costs for hosting U.S. troops is straining the alliance and potentially playing into North Korea’s hands ahead of a second summit with Kim Jong Un, South Korean lawmakers and experts say.
South Korea has about 28,500 U.S. troopson more than 20 sites and paid $855 million lastyear toward the cost. But the cost-sharing pact expired at the end of last year after 10 rounds of negotiations that left — in the words of one foreign ministry official in Seoul — a “huge gap” between both sides.
South Korean lawmakers and experts worry that Trump is so obsessed with Seoul paying more that he could take the previously unthinkable step of withdrawing some troops if a deal is not reached.
Lawmakers from the Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee, which need to approve any deal and have been briefed on the negotiations, said the United States first demanded South Korea nearly double its contribution, to $1.6 billion
Seoul also paid almost the entire cost of building a massive new U.S. base at Pyeongtaek and spent $13 billion between 2013 and 2017 on U.S. military hardware, training and services.
The United States has also proposed that South Korea cover some “operational costs” for the U.S. military presence in the region, including deploying aircraft carriers.
Cha said the Trump administration is looking for a “paradigm shift” in military burden sharing and is particularly keen to establish a precedent with South Korea ahead of similar negotiations with Japan and NATO next year.
Trump seems pretty set on getting all Euros to pay the 2%. His only strategy is to insult France and Germany and call them weak or whatever. I don't think France or Germany are going to cave. I, for one, think the world would be better without NATO
Jaxson Perry
Funny thing is that Trump didn't want any money from Poland, but we offered our help ourselves, to help our strategic ally to deal with the tight budget issue, and because we wanted to create precedent in Europe, and become a role-model for such countries Germany. Trump said straight in the Merkel's face that Poland is paying much more for NATO than it has to pay, while Germany is free-riding on our money.
We can always make special corridor through Poland for Russian army leading straight to Berlin, and if Germany doesn't pay, we will unleash Russian dogs to liberate them again
James Kelly
>If Germany starts paying The eternal kr*ut made his choice.
