U.S. seeks more host funds for troops in S. Korea
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States will have to cut its military capabilities in South Korea if Seoul is not willing to bear more of the cost of keeping U.S. troops on the Korean peninsula, a senior Pentagon official said on Monday.
Speaking before negotiations between the two countries on cost sharing, Richard Lawless, deputy under secretary of defense for Asia and Pacific affairs, warned it would pose a "significant problem" if there is a repeat of previous talks that resulted in reduced South Korean funds for U.S. troops.
"If we have an outcome this time similar to the outcome last time, we will be forced to make real cuts," Lawless told reporters.
The funding debate has sharpened as Washington and Seoul implement a big change in their 53-year-old alliance that will see South Korea recover wartime command of its troops from the United States and a downsized U.S. force assume a supporting role in deterring an attack from North Korea.
"All of the commitments we've made about keeping the capabilities on the Korean peninsula that we need to keep there in support of the alliance, all of these reassurances, assume -- presume -- that the Republic of Korea will share a reasonable burden with us," said Lawless.
In talks covering 2005 and 2006, South Korea negotiated an 8.9 decrease in the amount it pays to host 30,000 American troops. Seoul now pays roughly $680 million, or 38 percent of the cost of keeping U.S. troops in South Korea.
"We don't feel that this is an equitable arrangement," Lawless told a news conference, noting that Japan has kept its cost sharing for hosting American troops at 70 percent.
The negotiations with Seoul covering cost sharing for 2007 need to be wrapped up by December and the Pentagon wants South Korea to boost its share of the cost to "as close to 50 percent as we can get," Lawless said.
The United States has proposed that South Korea take over wartime control of its troops in 2009, three years before Seoul's target of 2012. South Korea ceded wartime command to U.S-led U.N. forces during the 1950-1953 Korean War and assumed peacetime command over its troops in 1994.
The two allies hope to overcome their differing views on the handover date at a Security Consultative Meeting in Washington on October 20-21.
Washington has tried to assuage Seoul's concerns about the early date by offering "bridging capabilities" during the transition, including theater ballistic air defense missile systems, command aircraft and intelligence capabilities.
The United States has about 30,000 troops in South Korea at military bases throughout the country.
South Korea has more than 650,000 soldiers facing communist neighbor North Korea's 1.2-million-strong army.
The two Koreas remain technically at war because the Korean War ended in truce instead of a peace treaty.
