South Korea pushes back on US demand to hike defense spending

​​​​​​​By Saadet Gokce

ISTANBUL (AA) - South Korea on Friday pushed back on US demands to hike defense spending.

"Among key US allies, South Korea is one of the countries that has a high defense spending ratio compared to its GDP," the South Korean Defense Ministry said in a statement, cited by Seoul-based Yonhap News.

Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said Thursday that South Korea and other Asian allies of the US are subject to the "global standard" of spending 5% of GDP on defense. US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said earlier this week that there is now a "new standard for allied defense spending that all of our allies around the world, including in Asia, should move to."

In response, South Korea’s Defense Ministry stressed that the East Asian nation has "continuously hiked defense spending in consideration of the grave security situation, such as North Korea's nuclear and missile threats."

Separately, a Foreign Ministry official said South Korea "has increased necessary defense spending in order to continuously strengthen our defense capabilities amid a stern security environment."

South Korea currently allocates 2.32% of its GDP to defense, amounting to 61.2 trillion won ($44.8 billion) for 2025 -- a 3.1% increase from the previous year.

To meet the 5% threshold, Seoul would have to more than double its defense budget to 132 trillion won.

Approximately 28,500 US troops are stationed in South Korea.

Although there have been reports of possible US troop withdrawals from South Korea, Washington has denied it.

On a related note, President Donald Trump had said, when he was a candidate in the lead-up to the US presidential election, that South Korea would be paying "$10 billion a year" for the soldiers stationed in the country, as cited by Radio Free Asia.

"We have 40,000 troops in harm’s way, very serious, because you have North Korea’s very serious power. They have tremendous nuclear power," Trump said last year.