Korea Looking to Pay Less
Korea is going to have to pay up because the US Army cannot even afford to dump the trash at Yongsan anymore.
Still millions of dollars apart, U.S. and South Korean negotiators will meet Tuesday for the fifth round of talks aimed at cementing how much South Korea will contribute this year to support U.S. troops stationed here.
According to the Ministry of National Defense, the one-day meeting will be held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Seoul, pointing to a U.S. troop reduction and its own contributions in Iraq and Afghanistan, wants to contribute less direct support than it did last year.
In 2004, South Korea paid $623 million in direct contributions, U.S. and South Korean officials have said. In 1991, when the cost-sharing program began, South Korea contributed $150 million.
Under the Special Measures Agreement covering the 2002-04 period, South Korean government support equaled some 40 percent of the non-personnel costs of stationing U.S. forces in South Korea, Gen. Leon J. LaPorte, U.S. Forces Korea commander, said last week.
So Korea pays 40% of the cost of USFK. That doesn’t sound like such a bad price considering the security that brings to the country. They could always try to go with an independent defense of the country and see how much that costs them.
Bring the US troops home, now. ROK and US both will save money, you guys will be out from under the NorK guns, the Norks will be pleased, a win-win-win for everyone.
ROK will be so scared they'll either buy more weapons from the US (another win), or send a lot more money and goods up north (at least a little will trickle down to oppressed average NorK citizens and make life marginally better at the margins, another "win"). Or both.