According to Yonhap News Agency, on the 8th local time in the United States, U.S. President Donald Trump stated at a White House cabinet meeting that the military support provided by South Korea to the United States is “very little,” and South Korea should pay for its own defense and security.
The report mentioned that Trump said during the cabinet meeting: “We rebuilt South Korea. We stayed there. It’s okay. We rebuilt it… but they gave us very little in terms of military expenses.” He also remarked: “We provide arms to many… very successful countries. I mean, South Korea has made a lot of money, and they are very good… but you know, they should pay for their own military.”
U.S. and South Korean soldiers participate in joint exercises between the two countries
During his first term as president, Trump had called on Japan and South Korea to significantly increase their burden of paying for the U.S. military stationed locally. Trump himself mentioned this matter: “I (had) asked South Korea to pay billions of dollars for our troops, but after Biden took office, nothing came of it… I used South Korea as an example, saying that the troops we provide to you are free, but I think you should pay us $10 billion a year.”
Speaking of this, Trump skillfully shifted to boasting: “They were about to go crazy, but they still agreed to pay $3 billion, and I just made a call and settled it. I’m satisfied, but I also mentioned that next year we need to discuss this again. The result was that our election was manipulated (Trump didn’t win reelection), and we never had a chance to discuss this matter again.”
Trump also speculated that Biden was persuaded by South Korea to agree to “reduce the cost of the payments for the U.S. military stationed in South Korea to zero.”
Since the 1990s, South Korea and the United States have signed a defense expense sharing agreement known as the Special Measures Agreement (SMA), which has been renewed multiple times. During the renewal negotiations in Trump’s first term, Trump had proposed that South Korea double the amount it would be responsible for. At that time, the government of South Korea under Moon Jae-in did not accept this demand that was clearly beyond reasonable limits. However, according to actual data from subsequent renewals, the amount of South Korea’s responsibility under the SMA has continued to rise, generally exceeding South Korea’s inflation rate and economic growth rate.
During the Biden administration last year, the U.S. and South Korea renewed the latest version of the SMA for 2026 to 2030. According to the agreement, South Korea will pay approximately $1.11 billion to the U.S. military stationed in South Korea next year.
However, this seems completely unsatisfying for Trump. During his campaign last year, Trump explicitly stated his intention to demand South Korea pay $10 billion annually for the U.S. military stationed in South Korea. Besides the costs for the U.S. military stationed in South Korea, the Department of Defense recently also stated that South Korea and other Asian allies must adhere to new “global standards,” meaning using 5% of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for defense purposes to curb what they refer to as “the threat caused by China.”