SEOUL – South Korea and the United States have agreed to start early talks on how to share the cost of keeping US forces in the country in a bid to reach a deal before the possible re-election of Donald Trump as president, local media reported on Jan 16.

Trump, who has emerged as the undisputed front runner for the Republican presidential nomination in the 2024 election, had during his presidency accused key Asian ally South Korea of “free-riding” on US military might and demanded it pay as much as US$5 billion (S$6.7 billion) a year for the US deployment.

Negotiations for the Special Measures Agreement were gridlocked for months under the Trump administration, and the deal was finalised when South Korea agreed to a 13.9 per cent increase in its contribution, the biggest annual rise in nearly two decades.

The agreement is set to expire in 2025 and Yonhap news agency as well as news service Newspim quoted unnamed diplomatic sources as saying South Korea and the US had agreed to start talks in 2024 on extending the deal to 2026 and beyond.

Talks are usually held just before the existing deal is due to end.

South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman Lim Soo-suk declined to comment on the reports, saying the government would prepare for the next negotiations in a “systematic, strategic” manner.

The US State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

US troops are deployed in South Korea as part of both nations’ efforts to deter North Korea, which has been accelerating its nuclear and missile programmes. 

South Korea began shouldering the costs of US deployments, used to fund local labour, the construction of military installations and other logistics support, in the early 1990s. REUTERS