PRESS RELEASE:  March 8, 2021

The Korea Society Welcomes the New Troop Burden Sharing Agreement between the U.S. and ROK

The Korea Society welcomes the March 7 State Department announcement that the U.S. and ROK negotiators have “reached agreement in principle” for the 11th Special Measures Agreement (SMA). This restores structural stability to the foundation of the U.S.-ROK alliance, while strengthening shared defense.

Restoring the SMA not only benefits South Korea and the United States, but also helps ensure peace and stability on the Korean peninsula and in Northeast Asia. First implemented in 1991, the SMA has stipulated the financial relationship over how the two sides share the cost of stationing U.S. troops in South Korea.

Increased contributions over a reported six-year period under the new agreement help meet U.S. concerns over South Korea’s shouldering a fair burden, although the amount has not yet been disclosed. The new agreement comes at a time when North Korea is relentlessly building up its strategic capabilities. It also helps ensure that the U.S. Forces Korea will not again furlough the South Korean civilians supporting the command.

Moreover, the new agreement also removes political discord generated since the last multiyear agreement expired more than one year ago, in December 2019, after which a one-year stop gap agreement was put into place. Annual renewal had exposed the burden sharing process to short-term political vagaries, which can jeopardize the structural stability of the long-term strategic relationship. The Trump administration provoked a backlash in South Korea over its aggressive renewal ask during the 2020 Korean electoral cycle. The South Korean National Assembly must ratify this new package.

Leading members from both parties of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia in the U.S. Congress see the new agreement as helping the United States and South Korea “jointly focus on broader security challenges, including COVID-19 response, North Korea's illicit weapons program, and China's increasing assertiveness across the region.”

In sum, the early resolution of the outstanding SMA negotiation is a terrific opening for the new Biden administration to coordinate a joint diplomatic and security agenda with the government of President Moon Jae-in, and to strengthen the crucial alliance between the two nations.

Thomas Byrne
President and CEO
The Korea Society
New York, N.Y.

THE KOREA SOCIETY is a private, nonprofit, nonpartisan, 501(c)(3) organization with individual and corporate members that is dedicated solely to the promotion of greater awareness, understanding, and cooperation between the people of the United States and Korea. Learn more about the Korea Society here.