WASHINGTON — The United States and South Korea have reached agreement in principle on a new arrangement for sharing the cost of the American troop presence, which is intended as a bulwark against the threat of North Korean aggression.
The State Department’s Bureau of Political-Military Affairs said the deal includes a “negotiated increase” in Seoul’s share of the cost, but it provided no details. The Bureau wrote on Twitter that the agreement, if finalized, would reaffirm the U.S.-South Korean treaty alliance as “the linchpin of peace, security and prosperity for Northeast Asia.”
The negotiations had broken down during the Trump administration over a U.S. demand that Seoul pay five times what it previously had paid. The State Department said in a statement that the increase in the South’s share of the cost was “meaningful.”
The U.S. keeps about 28,000 troops in South Korea.
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The Wall Street Journal, which was first to report the agreement, said it would last through 2025.
In its statement, the State Department said: “America’s alliances are a tremendous source of our strength. This development reflects the Biden-Harris administration’s commitment to reinvigorating and modernizing our democratic alliances around the word to advance our shared security and prosperity.”
