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ames DeHart, the US’ chief negotiator in its defense cost-sharing talks with South Korea, holds an emergency press conference at the American Center Korea in Seoul after the third round of the two sides’ Special Measures Agreement negotiations broke down on Nov. 19. (Yonhap News)

After pushing South Korea to assume an unprecedented financial burden of US$5 billion for stationing US troops on the Korean Peninsula, American representatives walked away from the two countries’ defense cost-sharing talks and declared that the negotiations had broken down. After the South Koreans insisted that they couldn’t accept the US’ unreasonable demands, the US took the extreme measure of unilaterally halting the negotiations. This behavior is the latest demonstration of US brinkmanship as it leans on Seoul to dramatically increase its defense contribution. It’s almost unheard of for the cost-sharing talks to be halted halfway through.

On the afternoon of Nov. 19, James DeHart, the US State Department’s chief negotiator in the defense cost-sharing talks, called an emergency press conference at the American Center Korea in the Namyeong neighborhood of Seoul’s Yongsan District. “Unfortunately, the proposals that were put forward by the Korean negotiating team were not responsive to our request for fair and equitable burden sharing. As a result, we cut short our participation in the talks today in order to give the Korean side some time to reconsider,” DeHart said at the press conference.

DeHart also expressed his hope that Seoul would “put forward new proposals that would enable both sides to work toward a mutually acceptable agreement in the spirit of our great alliance.”

While the third round of negotiations aimed at producing the 11th Special Measures Agreement (SMA) between the two countries was supposed to last for two days, from Nov. 18 to 19, the meeting on the second day was abruptly halted by the Americans. Considering that the US contacted some media outlets at 10:10 am, about 10 minutes after the day’s negotiations began, to notify them of the emergency press conference that afternoon, the Americans had apparently planned the suspension of the negotiations in advance.

South Korea’s lead negotiator Jeong Eun-bo called an emergency press conference of his own at the headquarters of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Seoul less than two hours after DeHart’s press conference. Jeong confirmed that the negotiations had broken down “because the Americans left the room.”

“While the US’ position is that South Korea’s share of the defense cost should be greatly expanded through the creation of new categories [of costs], our position is that [the negotiations] should stay within mutually acceptable bounds, and within the framework of the SMA agreements that our two countries have reached over the past 28 years,” Jeong said, suggesting that markedly different opinions were behind the rupture.

Jeong said that “both the categories and the total amount” were among the areas on which the two sides differ. “Basically, it’s the US that wants to create new categories. We’re sticking to our principles on that issue,” the South Korean negotiator said.

In the negotiations, the US is asking South Korea to contribute US$5 billion to the cost of stationing US troops on the Korean Peninsula. That’s nearly six times the amount that the two countries agreed to in their 10th SMA, which took effect this year. More specifically, the US is breaking with previous agreements to call for the creation of new categories that would cover the cost of American troops being rotated into deployments on the Korean Peninsula and of the two countries’ joint military exercises.

But Jeong said that the US hadn’t brought up the possibility of reducing the number of troops in the country or of pulling out altogether. “Until this point, there hasn’t been a single mention of US Forces Korea,” the official said.

With the US continuing to turn the screws on South Korea, it’s unclear when the next round of negotiations will be held. It’s also less likely that a deal will be reached before the end of the year.

“We look forward to resuming our negotiations when the Korean side is ready to work on the basis of partnership,” DeHart said, suggesting that the South Koreans would have to change their position before the negotiations could resume.

By Noh Ji-won, staff reporter

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