DEFENSE COST DISPUTE WITH THE U.S.

[Anchor Lead]

U.S. President Donald Trump said that South Korea had agreed to pay more money to maintain U.S. forces in Korea and negotiations have already begun to that end. Contrary to his claims, however, the South Korean foreign ministry has said that talks have not started yet. Everything's seems to be very confusing, but one thing that appears to be certain is that Washington has demanded a steep increase in Seoul's portion of the shared defense cost.

[Pkg]

Following his recent Tweets, U.S. President Donald Trump again spoke out that Seoul agreed to contribute more to the cost needed to keep U.S. forces in Korean soil.

[Soundbite] DONALD TRUMP(U.S. PRESIDENT)

He said that 32,000 American troops are stationed in Korea and Washington has been helping the country for 82 years, yet the U.S. didn't get anything in return. He complained that it was unfair.

[Soundbite] DONALD TRUMP(U.S. PRESIDENT)

He repeated four times that South Korea agreed to pay a much larger sum to cover the shared defense cost. In his previous Tweets, he wrote that negotiations on increasing South Korea's share of defense cost are already underway. However, Seoul's foreign ministry said talks have not started yet. In fact, there was no such negotiation, according to the ministry. Something is not right here. A clue can be found in President Trump's remark made on July 19th. On this day, he suddenly disclosed the fact that he held a phone meeting with President Moon Jae-in in to discuss the Seoul-Tokyo trade dispute.

[Soundbite] DONALD TRUMP(U.S. PRESIDENT(JUL. 19))

The U.S. leader said the phone call was about that conflict, but he suddenly brought up an old trade agreement between Seoul and Washington. He could have been implying to the shared military cost. He could simply have been mistaken, but it is also possible the two leaders did talk about the defense cost. South Korea has to pay nearly 1.4 trillion won in its contribution to the shared military cost. It's an 8.2% on-year spike. Next year's amount still has to be worked out separately. At the end of the interview, Trump said that Seoul will pay a large sum and that the U.S. will be with South Korea.