The pact replaces an agreement that expired in late 2019, under which South Korea paid about $920 million a year. The two sides agreed to freeze South Korea`s contribution for 2020, the ministry said. A State Department spokesman also told the Wall Street Journal that the two countries had reached an agreement on the SMA negotiations, saying the deal included “a significant increase” in Seoul. The spokesman said the deal demonstrated “the Biden administration`s commitment to reviving and modernizing our democratic alliances around the world.” Shin Beomchul, director of the Center for Diplomacy and Security at the Korea National Strategy Research Institute, called the new agreement “stable” and fair for now. South Korea`s Foreign Ministry said in a separate statement Wednesday that the new agreement “should create the conditions for a stable U.S. deployment. Forces Korea and contributes significantly to the improvement of the . Alliance. “The agreement solved the longest vacuum ever, which lasted about a year and three months,” South Korea`s chief negotiator Jeong Eun-bo told a televised press briefing. The union welcomed the agreement and said it would help ensure stable working conditions. Without them, thousands more workers would have been forced to take unpaid leave next month, the union said.
The failure of the talks had real consequences, as about 45 percent of Korean workers working for the USFK had to be fired because no deal could be reached last year. Without an agreement, the South Korean government and the National Assembly had to join forces to temporarily pay workers by enacting a new law and issuing decrees. Some lawmakers, such as Justice Party Chairman Bae Jin Gyo, have spoken out against the deal. Seoul is expected to contribute $1.02 billion for 2021, up 13.9 percent from the $896.62 million spent last year. The renewed agreement applies retroactively to South Korea`s contribution from last year, which was adopted starting in 2019 after negotiations on extending the agreement were stalled under President Donald Trump`s administration. The SMA agreements were revised every five years until 2018, when the Trump administration pushed for annual renegotiations. Seoul wanted and hoped to reach a long-term agreement again to maintain a stable alliance and ensure the security of the Korean Peninsula. Since Trump used the annual negotiations to call for a sharp increase in Seoul`s defense contributions, many experts have said signing a one-year term does not benefit South Korea`s national interest. “The 13 percent increase in defense costs will be a higher rate than the amount of the increase from previous negotiations,” Kim Hyun-wook, a professor at the Korean National Diplomatic Academy, told The Diplomat. “I think Seoul had demanded a rate below 13 percent in recent negotiations, but that couldn`t have worked because of its initial offer — a 13 percent increase — to the Trump administration.” Kim added that last year, due to Trump`s “America First” approach, it was impossible to reach an agreement on the size of the increase.
South Korea`s Foreign Ministry issued a press release saying the two sides reached an agreement in principle following the SMA negotiations between Seoul and Washington last week. The two countries will announce the results of the negotiations in more detail and sign a preliminary statement once the internal reporting process is complete. The State Department also stressed that Seoul will help strengthen the U.S.-South Korean alliance and common defense position by signing the agreement as soon as possible. Since President Joe Biden took office in January, Washington has taken relatively swift steps to revive stalled SA negotiations to restore the importance of the U.S.-South Korean alliance. South Korea and the United States held their eighth SMA meeting virtually on February 5, shortly after the Biden administration`s inauguration; Last week`s meeting was the first face-to-face meeting since a meeting in Los Angeles in March 2020. In Los Angeles, negotiators tentatively agreed to increase Seoul`s annual contribution by 13 percent to $1.2 billion, but the two sides were unable to sign the deal due to Trump`s request for contributions of up to $5 billion. A State Department official described the deal as in line with new President Joe Biden`s calls to “revive our alliances.” Now that the two sides have reached an agreement, some public and domestic experts are worried about the costs Seoul will pay for U.S. troops stationed in South Korea.
Critics say the amount Seoul pays has already increased by about 40 percent over the past decade, and many argue that it would be more beneficial to invest that money in strengthening the national armed forces instead. .