[정치]Defense cost issue’preparation cost’ missing…Will the U.S. raise it again in 2025?

[앵커]

Ahead of the Biden administration’s first diplomatic-defense ministers talks, the defense cost-sharing negotiations were settled dramatically.

With a six-year agreement that applies from last year, defense costs will not be a pending issue between the United States and South Korea for the time being, but the cost of preparedness, which was an issue, has been omitted from this agreement.

Reporter Kim Moon-kyung reports whether the United States is raising the issue again four years later.

[기자]

In 2018, the first defense cost-sharing negotiations began after the inauguration of the Trump administration.

President Trump has always raised the question of the cost of training in the ROK-US coalition.

[도널드 트럼프 / 당시 미 대통령(2018년 6월) : 비용이 얼마입니까. 괌에서 비행기를 띄워야 하고, 훈련을 위해 빈 산에 폭탄을 투하합니다. 그래서 그 훈련을 중단하고 싶다고 말했습니다. 저는 중단시킬 겁니다.]

They complained about the cost of tens of billions of won each time they put strategic assets overseas, such as bombers, nuclear aircraft carriers, and nuclear submarines, into the Korean Peninsula.

Most of these costs are known to have been borne by the United States, and the cost-sharing was pressured when negotiating for defense cost-sharing.

Under the logic that the defense cost was the cost of stationing US forces in Korea, we agreed to KRW 1.38.9 trillion excluding this cost at the time.

However, the U.S. side also made this an issue when negotiations resumed in 2019.

It has been demanding the establishment of new so-called readiness items, such as the cost of deploying US strategic assets and the rotation of US troops.

[윤상현 / 당시 국회 외교통일위원장 : (미 협상 대표가) 미국의 대한 방위공약을 준수하는 데 있어서 주한미군, 한반도 주한미군뿐만 아니라 역외에 있는 여러 자산들, 전력들을 포함하는 개념이다… (라고 말했습니다.)]

The US demand, however, has been left out of the agreement.

We have adhered to the principle of defense cost contributions, and the United States has found a point of contact by raising the rate of increase in national defense expenses by around 6% annually by 2025, along with an increase of 13.9% from last year.

[정은보 / 한미 방위비분담 협상대사 : 준비태세 항목이 신설되지 않도록 하였고, 단순히 금액이 아닌 원칙과 기준에 입각한 협상을 하였습니다.]

With this agreement, the government will be free from offensive over the cost of readiness for the next four years.

However, as the United States strongly raised the issue of training costs in the last negotiations, it remains to be seen whether this cost issue will be raised again at the end of the negotiations.

YTN Kim Moon-kyung[[email protected]]is.

[저작권자(c) YTN & YTN plus 무단전재 및 재배포 금지]