Former President Donald Trump, the U.S. Republican presidential candidate, said on the 15th (local time) that if he were president, Korea would have paid $10 billion (approximately 13.63 trillion won) per year in defense cost sharing for U.S. troops stationed in Korea. This amount is nine times the defense cost sharing recently reached between South Korea and the United States. There are predictions that if former President Trump wins the U.S. presidential election in November and returns to power, demands for renegotiation of defense cost sharing will become a reality.
Former President Donald Trump is attending a talk hosted by the Chicago Economic Club on the 15th (local time). Reuters Yonhap News
Former President Trump said at a talk hosted by the Chicago Economic Club held in Chicago on this day, “If I were there (the White House), Korea would have spent $10 billion a year (to station US troops in Korea),” and “They (Korea) are a money machine.” (ATM machine),” he said. This is interpreted to mean that since Korea is a wealthy country, it should pay a large share of defense costs, and that, like an ATM, one can demand the money he wants from Korea.
Former President Trump said that when he first requested an annual defense cost sharing of $5 billion during his time in office, “South Korea was going crazy,” and that he first raised it to $2 billion and then tried to demand $5 billion again the following year. In particular, he claimed that it was a “shameful thing,” saying that the defense cost-sharing agreement he had made with South Korea was overturned after the inauguration of the Joe Biden administration in 2021.
When former President Trump was in office, he demanded that the contribution be increased to $5 billion, five to six times more than the existing amount, causing negotiations between Korea and the United States to drift. In the end, after an unprecedented gap in the agreement, the 11th Korea-US Special Defense Cost-Sharing Agreement (SMA) was concluded only after President Biden took office in 2021, and the gist of the ‘13% increase plan’ by the working-level negotiation team between Korea and the US, which former President Trump had rejected. was maintained.
In light of former President Trump’s remarks on this day, there is speculation that the possibility of asking Korea to renegotiate its defense cost sharing has increased. At the 12th SMA earlier this month, South Korea and the United States agreed to set the 2026 contribution to 1.5192 trillion won, an 8.3% increase from the previous year, and to increase it every year for five years until 2030, reflecting the rate of increase in the consumer price index instead of the current rate of increase in defense spending.
Ambassador to the United States Cho Hyun-dong also said at the National Assembly Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee audit held at the Embassy in Washington on the 11th, “We cannot rule out the possibility that the United States, which (unlike us) does not receive congressional ratification consent, will do so (request for renegotiation) under its presidential authority.” .
Former President Trump also said today that the number of U.S. troops stationed in Korea was 40,000, compared to the actual 28,500. In an interview with Fox News on the 13th, he said, “I made a great deal with Korea,” and in the process of showing off the results of the negotiations, “I told them that 40,000 soldiers were there and were in a dangerous situation.” This suggests that they put pressure on Korea by raising the issue of withdrawal or reduction of US troops stationed in Korea during the defense cost sharing negotiations or the revision negotiations for the Korea-US Free Trade Agreement (FTA). If former President Trump is re-elected, it is expected that he will once again use the issue of US troops stationed in Korea as leverage in negotiations.
Former President Trump also referred to Korea as a ‘money machine’ and mentioned the fact that he had imposed tariffs on Korean trucks while he was in office. “I love Korea and they are wonderful people,” he said. “I got along very well with them, but they didn’t pay anything.” He then claimed, “Korea was sending trucks to the United States, and I imposed tariffs on them,” adding, “It was a fair and practical tariff.” There are also predictions that if the second Trump administration takes office, it may involve not only security but also economic issues to gain an advantage in defense cost-sharing negotiations with South Korea.
Meanwhile, former President Trump said of North Korea’s explosion of a section of the inter-Korean road connecting the Gyeongui Line and Donghae Line, “It means that South Korea is now cut off from Russia, China, and many other places.”
