[Editorial] Revise the cost sharing of hosting US troops

Posted on : 2013-07-04 14:37 KST Modified on : 2013-07-04 14:37 KST

On July 2, South Korean and US officials met in Washington for the first round of negotiations on the South Korea-US Special Measures Agreement (SMA), which defines how the two countries will share the cost of defending South Korea from 2014 to 2018. Since the two countries will have to implement the revised cost-sharing agreement in 2014, they agreed to complete the negotiations by October.

To be sure, South Korea cannot avoid covering some part of the cost of stationing US soldiers here, as those soldiers are responsible for a substantial portion of South Korea’s defense. Nevertheless, there must be clear standards and principles for cost sharing, and the fact that South Korea is allied with the US does not change this. South Korea must not lose sight of its own interests out of excessive consideration for relations with its American ally.

There are two major issues with the negotiations about the US-ROK defense cost sharing agreement. The first is the length of the agreement. Since the two countries signed the first cost sharing agreement in 1991, there have been eight such agreements. The seven agreements that ran through 2008 each lasted two to three years, but when the eighth agreement was drafted in 2008, the Lee Myung-bak administration accommodated US wishes to extend it to five years.

Extending the agreement makes it difficult to respond flexibly not only to the global security climate but also to evolving US military strategy. In fact, in Japan, agreements that had been five years in length were shorted to two years in 2008. South Korea should also restore the term of the agreement to its original length during these negotiations.

The second problem is that there has been no definite method of calculating the costs for the South Korean government. During the negotiations for the eighth agreement, both sides agreed that South Korea would pay a total of 760 billion won (US$6.66 million) for 2009 and would increase the amount each year afterward to account for inflation, with the proviso that this increase would not exceed 4%. Consequently, the South Korean contribution leaped to 869.5 billion won in 2013.

Except for 2005 and 2006, the amount contributed by South Korea has gone up each year since the 1991 agreement was concluded (107.3 billion won), and the portion of the defense budget it takes up has nearly doubled. Judging by the fact that the US is pushing for a big increase in the South Korean contribution, citing factors such as the shrinking US defense budget and the growing threat from North Korea, some believe that the amount may pass 1 trillion won for the first time.

The issue here is that, even as South Korea forks over these vast sums of money, the way the sum is calculated prevents the South Korean government from determining where and how the US army is actually using the money. The lax approach the US army has taken to this money was underscored by a review of the cost of supporting overseas bases conducted by the US Senate Armed Service Committee in April. The review criticized US forces in South Korea for essentially treating South Korea’s financial contribution as extra money that it could spend as it wished.

At least, the South Korean government should use these negotiations to devise a way to figure out which projects its contribution is being used for, and how much money is going to each of these projects. Furthermore, the government should also clearly specify the items for which its contribution may be used just as Japan has done. This will prevent the sum from becoming the US army’s private slush fund.

 

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]

 

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