The Pentagon and South Korea have reached a temporary $200 million cost-sharing arrangement for Seoul to pay for more than 4,000 Koreans who work for United States Forces Korea through the end of this year, CNN reported on Wednesday.
The agreement comes after the workers were put on unpaid leave earlier this year by the United States after the two countries failed to come to a broader Special Measures Agreement (SMA) insisted upon by the Trump administration, Stars and Stripes reported.
The U.S. sought last year to pressure South Korea to pay some $1.6 billion toward the cost of housing the almost 30,000 American troops stationed in the country, but accepted a $1 billion figure if they could work out a new SMA for 2020.
However, when the two sides failed to reach such a deal earlier this year. the U.S. furloughed the Korean workers without pay.
Referring to the absence of a deal on the lapsed SMA, the Department of Defense put out a statement that it "believes that equitable burden-sharing between the governments of the United States and the Republic of Korea is in the best interest of all parties."
The department added that without a SMA, "critical defense infrastructure projects will remain suspended."
Several senior U.S. defense officials told CNN they were concerned that the situation could undermine the American military mission amid tensions with North Korea.
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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