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Jeong Eun-bo, South Korea’s chief negotiator in its defense cost-sharing talks with the US, and his US counterpart James DeHart. (provided by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs)

After US Forces Korea (USFK) took the unprecedented step of putting 4,000 of its South Korean employees on unpaid leave on Apr. 1, as US and South Korean negotiators struggle to reach a deal on this year’s defense cost-sharing arrangement, the South Korean government has announced that it will be drafting a special bill to provide those workers with “livelihood assistance.”

Negotiators have reportedly arrived at a general understanding about how many years the cost-sharing arrangement, known as the 11th Special Measures Agreement (SMA), will remain in place and about how much South Korea’s financial contribution will increase, and they’re currently putting the finishing touches on the deal. There are even hopeful predictions that the deal could be announced as soon as today.

“The government is currently exploring measures to minimize the harm caused to employees by their unpaid leave. We’re planning to draw up a special bill as soon as possible in close consultation with the National Assembly in order to provide the employees with livelihood assistance from the state budget,” said Choi Hyun-soo, spokesperson for South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense, during a briefing on the afternoon of Apr. 1.

“Until the special bill becomes law, we’ll be working to develop various measures through deliberations between related ministries, such as helping employees take out loans to cover their emergency living expenses,” Choi added.

Choi’s announcement hadn’t been scheduled in advance. “This briefing was held to show that the government will carry out its duties in regard to the furlough situation,” one government official said.

Choi also commented about USFK’s decision to furlough the workers. “The South Korean government has been carrying out deliberations with the Americans and has made a variety of proposals based on the assumption that USFK furloughing its South Korean employees doesn’t help us maintain our joint defensive posture, and we think it is very regrettable that they were furloughed,” she said.

The USFK Korean Employees Union held a press conference in front of Camp Humphreys, the US military base in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, on Wednesday. “These workers have suffered a direct blow to their livelihood, without making any alternative available to them, at a time when there are few opportunities for part-time work or day labor amid the COVID-19 pandemic. In the negotiations, the government needs to ask the Americans to make definite institutional improvements to ensure that there’s no repeat of this situation,” a union representative said.

There are indications that negotiators from the two sides are nearing a deal. During a meeting with reporters on Wednesday, a senior official from the Blue House confirmed that there had been “progress” in the negotiations. Sources close to the government expect that a deal will be announced as early as Apr. 2, and within a few days at the latest.

The negotiators have reportedly agreed to extend the arrangement from its temporary length of one year to several years, while raising the total amount of South Korea’s financial contribution above 1 trillion won (US$809.02 million). The likely length of the agreement is five years. Initially, after the 1st SMA was signed in 1991, the arrangement was valid for two or three years; more recently, in the 8th and 9th SMAs, that length was increased to five years. The length of the 10th SMA, reached last year, was shortened to one year at the Americans’ request.

The negotiations moved into high gear after South Korean President Moon Jae-in and US President Donald Trump agreed to cooperate on responding to COVID-19 during a phone call on the evening of Mar. 24, and sources say that American negotiators considerably lowered the amount they want South Korea to contribute to shared defense last week.

When the negotiations began in September 2019, the US initially asked South Korea to contribute nearly US$5 billion to covering the cost of stationing US troops in the country, more than five times it had paid the previous year. Later, the US lowered its request to US$4 billion. The tug-of-war between the two sides dragged on, with South Korea dead set against a double digit increase in its contribution.

The South Korean government hopes to quickly wrap up the negotiations so that the SMA bill can be ratified by the current National Assembly before its term ends on May 29.

By Kim So-youn and Seong Yeon-cheol, staff reporters, and Lee Je-hun, senior staff writer

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