DETAILS OF S. KOREA-U.S. DEFENSE DEAL

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South Korea will have to pay 1.183 trillion won this year to help maintain U.S. troops on the Korean Peninsula. The amount is up 13.9 percent from the last deal. The government said the new defense deal is valid for six years and therefore more stable. It also includes measure to protect South Koreans hired by the USFK from being placed on unpaid furlough. Here is more.

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The Foreign Ministry says South Korea and the U.S. reached a final agreement on the renewal of a bilateral defense cost-sharing deal, following the three-day talks held in Washington from last Friday. The accord came one and a half years after the two countries launched negotiations, which had remained stalled for 15 months. The renewed deal will be effective for six years from 2020 through 2025. The two sides agreed to freeze South Korea's share for last year when their talks had come to a halt.
Under the new agreement, South Korea will pay 1.183 trillion won this year for the upkeep of U.S. troops on the Korean Peninsula. It is up 13.9 percent from the previous deal. From the years 2022 to 2025, Seoul and Washington will raise Seoul’s contribution based on the increase in its national defense costs from the previous year.
The Defense Ministry estimated that the nation's national defense costs would increase by an annual average of 6.1 percent by 2025. In this case, Seoul's contribution will amount to 1.5 trillion won in the last year of the deal. The six-year deal can be considered an achievement, since the two countries don't need to engage in exhausting negotiations to renew it every year. However, it is true that South Korea's contribution will grow bigger, as it is based on an increase in national defense costs. This is a far cry from a previous deal reached under the Obama administration, which calculated Seoul's share based on the inflation rate and raised it no higher than four percent. The South Korean government, instead, highlighted system improvements to guarantee job security for South Koreans hired by the USFK. One of them is a new stipulation that protects the South Korean employees from being placed on unpaid furlough. The U.S. has to pay the South Koreans as much as it did the previous year, when there is a vacuum in negotiations.

[Soundbite] Jeong Eun-bo(S. Korea's chief negotiator) : "The latest negotiations focused on ensuring job security for South Korean employees in the USFK. The two sides reached an agreement which is acceptable and a win-win for both sides."

The renewed deal will be first initialed before being approved by a cabinet meeting and the president in South Korea. It will then officially take effect once it is ratified by the
National Assembly. The official signing of the deal is expected to come when U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin visit Seoul next Wednesday.