Seoul: No specific price in US troop cost-sharing talks

By Riyaz ul Khaliq

ANKARA (AA) - The United States has not asked for a specific price for the upkeep of its troops in South Korea, President Moon Jae-in said Friday.

Such reports are a "disregard for any leader in the world", a statement issued by the South Korean Presidency quoted Moon as saying.

Reports emerged earlier this week that the Trump administration had sought a 41 percent hike in Seoul’s contribution to the stationing of American troops in the far-east country.

"Such reports can be an insult to President Trump," Moon’s media representative said in a statement to Yonhap news agency. However, the representative did not reject reports that Washington and Seoul were in talks over a renewed cost-sharing deal for the 28,500 American troops stationed in South Korea.

Seoul wants a renewed three- to five-year cost-sharing deal while Washington is calling for a one-year term, reports had said.

"Not just President Trump but no leader of any country in the world speaks in such a manner," the South Korean president was quoted as saying.

Media reports quoting diplomatic sources regarding a recent visit by a U.S. envoy to presidential office in Seoul had claimed that the Trump administration might have asked South Korea to double its contribution to about $1.6 billion per year.