Commenting on the issue, US President Donald Trump tweeted that South Korea has agreed to pay more money to the United States in order to “defend itself from North Korea”.
...Talks have begun to further increase payments to the United States. South Korea is a very wealthy nation that now feels an obligation to contribute to the military defense provided by the United States of America. The relationship between the two countries is a very good one!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 7, 2019
Since taking office, Donald Trump has always demanded that South Korea increase its share of the cost of the US military presence in the country.
In February, South Korea and the United States signed have an agreement on a cost-sharing plan to keep US forces on the Korean Peninsula.
Under the deal, South Korea agreed to increase its contribution to United States Forces Korea (USFK) to $923 million in 2019, up from $830 million in 2018.
US troops have been deployed to South Korea since the 1950s. Currently, they amount to around 28,500 US soldiers.
