The United States and South Korea are set to engage in discussions in Hawaii this week to address the cost-sharing arrangements for American troops stationed in South Korea. The United States aims to secure a fair and equitable agreement that strengthens the alliance between the two nations.
The meeting, which falls under the 12th ROK-U.S. Special Measures Agreement, will be held in Honolulu from Tuesday to Thursday. The delegations will be led by Linda Specht, the US lead negotiator for security agreements, and Lee Tae-woo, South Korea’s representative for defense burden sharing.
The current agreement is set to expire in 2025, and negotiations for a successor pact typically occur close to the end of the existing one. However, South Korean officials have expressed their expectation that relations will remain stable regardless of the outcome of the upcoming US presidential election in November.
The US currently maintains over 28,000 troops in South Korea as part of efforts to deter nuclear-armed North Korea. South Korea has been gradually shouldering the costs of the deployment since the early 1990s, contributing to local labor, the construction of military installations, and other logistics support.
During the Trump administration, the two sides struggled to reach a deal for months before Seoul agreed to increase its contribution by 13.9%. Trump had initially demanded that Seoul pay as much as $5 billion annually.
A senior Biden administration official stated in March that the talks were progressing ahead of schedule, but the US did not consider November to be a strict deadline. Despite the ongoing negotiations, South Korean officials remain hopeful that progress will be made on the defense cost-sharing this year.