Trump says ‘money machine’ Korea should pay more for US troops

By Soo-Hyang Choi

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said South Korea would pay billions of dollars more every year to host US troops if he were in the White House, calling the long-time US ally a “money machine.”

“If I were there now, they’d be paying us $10 billion a year and you know what, they’d be happy to do it,” Trump told Bloomberg News Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait on Tuesday in an interview at the Economic Club of Chicago. “It’s a money machine, South Korea.”

The remarks come less than two weeks after the US and South Korea reached a new five-year cost-sharing deal for hosting American forces on the divided peninsula. Under the agreement, South Korea will raise its share of the costs to 1.52 trillion won ($1.13 billion) in 2026, up 8.3 per cent compared with this year.

The cost sharing involving US troops based in South Korea was a bone of contention when Trump was in office. At that time Trump asked South Korea to contribute about $5 billion to keep around 28,000 American military personnel in the region, well above the roughly $1 billion each year Seoul agreed to pay in the previous deal

Under the new deal the amount for the four years after 2026 will reflect the increase in inflation, capping the annual rise at 5 per cent, according to South Korea’s foreign ministry.

South Korea was paying around 960 billion won in 2018 under a multi-year deal that was struck in 2014 before the Trump administration.

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US voters are already casting their ballots in what polls forecast to be a razor-thin contest with Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris three weeks before Election Day.

While Harris is seen largely sticking to the current direction of security policy if she wins, Trump has repeatedly called out US allies for not spending enough on defense arrangements.

“North Korea is a very serious power, they have tremendous nuclear power. And I said to South Korea you’ve got to pay,” Trump said, adding that he had a “very good relationship” with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

South Korea’s foreign ministry did not immediately have a comment.