US, South Korea agree funding for troops

The US and South Korea have agreed in principle on a new arrangement for sharing the cost of the American troop presence, intended as a bulwark against the threat of North Korean aggression.

The State Department's Bureau of Political-Military Affairs said on Sunday the deal includes a "negotiated increase" in Seoul's share of the cost, but it provided no details.

The Bureau wrote on Twitter that the agreement, if finalised, would reaffirm the US-South Korean treaty alliance as "the linchpin of peace, security and prosperity for Northeast Asia."

South Korea's Foreign Ministry on Monday issued a similar statement, saying the two countries are seeking to tentatively sign the deal. It said the agreement came after three days of face-to-face talks in Washington.

The US keeps about 28,000 troops in South Korea to help deter potential aggression from North Korea, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War. But how much South Korea should pay for the American military presence was a thorny issue in bilateral relations under the Trump administration, which often asked its Asian ally to drastically increase its share.

In 2019, the allies struck a deal that required South Korea to pay about $US924 million for the US troops presence, an increase from $US830 million in the previous year. But negotiations for a new cost-sharing plan broke down over a US demand that Seoul pay five times what it previously had paid.

The State Department said in a statement that the increase in the South's share of the cost was "meaningful" but was not more specific.

The Wall Street Journal, which was first to report the agreement, said it would last through 2025. South Korea's Foreign Ministry said it couldn't immediately confirm the report.

In its statement, the State Department said: "America's alliances are a tremendous source of our strength. This development reflects the Biden-Harris administration's commitment to reinvigorating and modernising our democratic alliances around the word to advance our shared security and prosperity."

South Korea began paying for the US military deployment in the early 1990s, after rebuilding its economy from the devastation of the Korean War. The big U.S. military presence in South Korea is a symbol of the countries' alliance but also a source of long-running anti-American sentiments.