U.S., South Korea Reach Long-Sought Agreement on Defense Costs

(Bloomberg) -- The U.S. and South Korea have reached a tentative pact on defense cost-sharing that will see Seoul increase funding for U.S. forces stationed in the country, the State Department said.

Negotiators reached an agreement in principle on the proposed text for the Special Measures Agreement, according to a series of Twitter posts from the U.S. agency’s political-military affairs branch.

The agreement will be subject to ratification by the South Korean parliament.

The proposal includes what was termed a meaningful increase in payments by South Korea to fund U.S. military operations, negotiated by the State Department. Exact terms weren’t disclosed. There are about 28,500 U.S. troops stationed in South Korea, according to South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense.

The issue had been a point of dispute for the previous U.S. administration, with President Donald Trump in 2020 reportedly rejecting Seoul’s best offer, putting the countries’ alliance at risk.

Talks restarted in February, shortly after the arrival of the Biden administration.

“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,” a State Department spokesman said.

Also on Sunday, the U.S. and South Korea said that they’ll hold regular military drills from Monday, but will conduct the exercises mostly as computer simulations. The “strictly defensive” nine-day drill will be a command-post exercise, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.

Washington and Seoul have eased up on joint drills in a bid to get North Korea back to the negotiating table. Pyongyang has labeled the exercises an “invasion rehearsal.”

©2021 Bloomberg L.P.