US military helicopters are landing at Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi-do, on the afternoon of the 8th, when the combined command post exercises began in the first half of this year. Pyeongtaek = News 1
On the 10th, the contents of the USFK defense cost sharing agreement recently agreed by the ROK and the US were released. According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in this negotiation, the two countries set the total amount of contributions this year to 1,183.3 billion won, an increase of 13.9% compared to 2019. In addition, from next year until 2025, when this agreement is in effect, it is decided to increase the share annually by applying an increase in defense expenditures as in the last 10th agreement. The government plans to increase its defense budget by an average of 6% or more every year, so after five years, the contribution will increase to over 1.5 trillion won.
It is fortunate that the negotiations were concluded early, considering that negotiations were difficult due to the Trump administration’s demand for an excessive increase in defense cost contributions, and problems such as arrears in wages for Korean workers occurred in the meantime. It is a meaningful achievement to reduce the factors of conflict between Korea and the United States by restoring the validity period of the agreement to five years, which was reduced to one year, but to increase the share of labor costs among the contributions, and to pay the labor costs at the level of the previous year when the agreement is vacant. .
Nevertheless, it is difficult to assess that the content of the agreement was concluded in a direction that is generally in line with the national interests. Above all, the impression is too steep. The fact that the increase rate, which had been linked to the inflation rate for the past ten years, and which had been up to the 4% limit in the past 10 years, has risen three or four times at once is too high even considering the increase in labor costs and a two-year increase. Simple comparison is difficult, but it is in contrast to the 1% increase in the share of US forces in Japan every year in Japan, which is in a similar situation.
Even in the previous agreement with the Trump administration, the increase was as high as 8.2% as a result of linking with the increase in defense spending. When looking at the contribution, it is difficult to understand that the price index was reasonable because the construction cost of US military facilities and labor costs were more than 80%. There were also many criticisms, such as that the amount of the US military’s insolvent over the share of defense expenses was enormous or that it was diverted to the US military in Japan. In the long run, demands for excessive share of defense costs only increase public distrust of the US military.
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