The Korea Herald

소아쌤

Korea, US set for continued talks on sharing defense cost

By Yonhap

Published : May 11, 2018 - 10:52

    • Link copied

South Korea and the US will hold another round of negotiations next week on sharing the cost of maintaining American troops in Korea, Seoul's foreign ministry said Friday.

The third session of the 10th Special Measures Agreement talks between the allies will be held in Washington DC on Monday and Tuesday, it said.

The previous ones took place in Honolulu in March and on Jeju Island in April.

The two sides plan to have "in-depth consultations" to fine-tune their positions on the basis of discussions in the previous talks, the ministry said.

(Yonhap) (Yonhap)

The existing SMA deal is scheduled to expire at the end of this year.

South Korea has shared the financial burden for the US Forces Korea , currently around 28,500 personnel, since the early 1990s.

Seoul's contribution has increased to around 960 billion won ($887 million) in 2018 under the five-year accord from 150 billion won in 1991, officials said.(Yonhap)