(CNN) – US and South Korea reach new preliminary five-year agreement on sharing Costs of US forces based in South KoreaThe State Department announced this Friday in a deal that would preserve the long-standing alliance ahead of a possible victory for former President Donald Trump in November.
The current deal doesn’t expire until the end of 2025, but both sides felt an urgency to get the deal done before a possible second Trump administration, two U.S. officials and two former U.S. officials previously told CNN. Negotiations on the Special Operations Agreement, known as the SMA, have strained the alliance during the Trump administration, with the former president demanding up to 400% more to keep 28,500 US troops in the country during negotiations on the agreement.
Specific details of the announced new deal, including its price, when it will be signed and when it will take effect, were not immediately released. The new agreement was reached after eight rounds of negotiations, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement. It must be ratified by South Korea’s National Assembly, which is dominated by South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol’s opposition party, and the US Congress has no role in finalizing a deal on the US side.
Proponents argue that a significant U.S. troop presence on the Korean Peninsula is critical to strengthening the alliance between the two countries. As Kim Jong Un’s regime continues to develop its nuclear arsenal, the troops are important to both countries as a means of countering US aggression and as a means of deterring a North Korean attack.
Given the turbulence of the previous round of negotiations, the Korean side was in a greater hurry to complete the deal by the end of the year, officials said. Some officials feared striking a deal now could spark criticism of Trump, and they didn’t want the alliance to be in the former president’s line of fire if he won election in November.
According to the current agreement, South Korea pays US$1.13 billion annually, representing an increase of approximately 13.9% over previous SMAs.
Trump administration officials largely negotiated the terms of the latest deal, but it didn’t go into effect until March 2021, months after President Joe Biden took office, when administration officials approved Biden’s changes and brought the deal to its final stage.
During the initial phase of negotiations, CNN reported Trump asked South Korea to pay $4.7 billion a year, coming out of the blue and scrambling for State and Defense Department officials to justify the figure.
Earlier this year, Trump said he didn’t believe South Korea was paying enough under the latest deal.
“They were able to renegotiate with the Biden administration and get that number down to almost nothing,” Trump said earlier this year. Interview with time. “Why should we protect someone? We’re talking about a very rich country. But they’re a very rich country, why don’t they want to pay?
Some former U.S. officials have warned South Korea not to move too quickly toward a deal because it could backfire if Trump ends up in the White House.
CNN’s Gawon Bae contributed to this report.
