Seoul: The United States and South Korea resolved a lengthy impasse as negotiators struck a deal that will see Seoul pay more to help maintain the 28,500 U.S. troops on the Korean Peninsula, the U.S. State Department announced.
“U.S. and ROK negotiators have reached agreement in principle on proposed text for a new Special Measures Agreement that will strengthen our Alliance and our shared defense,” the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs at the State Department tweeted on Sunday.
The Republic of Korea is the official name of South Korea.
The renewed pact includes a “negotiated increase” in support from South Korea and reaffirms the alliance as “the linchpin of peace, security and prosperity for Northeast Asia, a free and open Indo-Pacific, and across the world,” the bureau tweeted.
No details were released on the specific terms of the agreement.
Seoul had previously offered an increase of 13% over the $870 million share that it paid in 2019, but former U.S. President Donald Trump rejected the proposal, initially demanding that South Korea pay $5 billion per year. The 10th Special Measures Agreement expired in 2019 and the two sides had failed to come to a new arrangement before Sunday, placing the alliance under strain.
South Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs also announced the agreement, which came on the ninth round of negotiations overall and the first under the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden.
