The World On arirang

The Trump administration is dialing up pressure on South Korea to pay a larger share of the costs needed to maintain U.S. troops on the Korean Peninsula. On November 19, the third round of negotiations between Seoul and Washington on the 11th Special Measures Agreement (SMA) broke down following discussions that lasted around 90 minutes. It has been reported that the U.S. is asking South Korea to pay around US$5 billion, a more than five-fold increase compared to Seoul’s current level of financial commitment, which was agreed between the two sides earlier this year. The Trump administration is also demanding other U.S. allies across the globe to shoulder a larger burden of defense costs. It has requested US$8 billion, a four-fold hike, in Japan’s payment to cover the cost of U.S. troops in the country, while calling on NATO member states in Europe to bolster their defense spending. In this week’s edition of ‘Foreign Correspondents’, we sit down with our panel of journalists to talk more about the ramifications of Trump’s hardline stance on defense cost-sharing.