S. Korea, U.S. set for defense cost talks

SEOUL, Nov. 17 (Yonhap) -- South Korea and the United States will try again to
narrow differences this week over how much Seoul should pay for the presence of
American troops here, officials said Monday.
The new round of talks, the fifth this year, will be held in Honolulu on Wednesday
and Thursday, focusing on setting South Korea's portion for the coming years and
changing the formula for its financial contributions, they added.
"We (South Korea) will seek ways to share the costs in an appropriate and
rational way in consideration of our financial capacity," Foreign Ministry
spokesman Moon Tae-young said.
South Korea paid 725.5 billion won to Washington last year and is supposed to pay
the same amount this year with an adjustment for inflation under the Special
Measures Agreement (SMA). When the deal was reached in late 2006, one dollar was
worth about 950 won. The exchange rate now hovers at around 1,400 won against the
greenback.
Seoul pays its share in won instead of the dollar as the money is mostly used to
pay wages for Korean employees at U.S. military bases and to construct facilities
here.
Washington has called for Seoul to increase its share to 50 percent from the
current 42 percent. About 28,500 U.S. soldiers are stationed on the peninsula as
a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War.
In the SMA talks, South Korea is represented by Cho Byung-je, ambassador for
talks on defense cost-sharing, and his counterpart is Jackson McDonald, senior
advisor for security negotiations.
lcd@yna.co.kr
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