S. Korea agrees to pay 13.9% more from 2019 to host US troops

South Korea has agreed to raise its payment for stationing US troops here by 13.9 percent this year from 2019, the foreign ministry said Wednesday, in a six-year deal with the United States that cleared the way for the countries to cement their alliance.

Under the deal that will last until 2025, Seoul is to pay 1.183 trillion won ($1.03 billion) this year, up from 1.038 trillion won in 2019 -- the first double-digit rise since 2002 -- for the upkeep of the 28,500-strong US Forces Korea (USFK).

Concluding 1 1/2 years of grueling negotiations, Seoul and Washington reached the deal, called the Special Measures Agreement (SMA), Sunday amid fears that a prolonged stalemate would undermine their focus on countering North Korea's security threats and other shared challenges.

"The agreement served as an opportunity for the two countries to reaffirm the importance of the solid South Korea-US alliance as the linchpin for peace and prosperity on the Korean Peninsula and in Northeast Asia, and the need for the stable stationing of the USFK," the ministry said in a press release.

"It is assessed that by smoothly addressing the key pending alliance issue early on after the launch of the Biden administration, South Korea and the US demonstrated the robustness of the firm alliance," it added.

Under the latest and 11th SMA, subject to parliamentary approval here, the two countries are to freeze Seoul's payment for 2020 at the 2019 level. The last one-year SMA lapsed at the end of 2019, leaving the USFK without a funding scheme since then.

This year, Seoul is to pay 1.183 trillion won, an increase of 13.9 percent from 2019. The jump reflects last year's 7.4 percent increase in Seoul's defense spending, as well as a 6.5 percent rise in the cost for Korean workers in the USFK.

The two countries also agreed to link Korea's SMA payments from 2022 through 2025 to the increased rates of Seoul's defense spending. Next year's payment will thus grow by this year's increase rate of 5.4 percent.

"The rate of defense spending increase reflects our financial capacity and defense capabilities, and is determined through parliamentary deliberations," the ministry said. "Thus, it is a reasonable standard that any citizen can verify and trust."

To prevent Korean USFK workers from being furloughed again absent a funding scheme, Seoul and Washington codified an SMA rule for the first time to enable the former to provide its share of the cost for them at a level set in the previous year.

Last year, thousands of the Korean workers went on temporary unpaid leave as the deadlock in SMA negotiations persisted amid the former Donald Trump administration's calls for a hefty increase in Seoul's contributions.

The official signing of the new SMA is likely to come during a visit to Seoul by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, which is expected to take place next week.

The latest SMA was struck during meetings between South Korea's top negotiator, Jeong Eun-bo, and his US counterpart, Donna Welton, in Washington from Friday to Sunday -- their first face-to-face encounter since the Jan. 20 launch of the Biden administration. (Yonhap)