South Korea has historically paid an unusually large percentage of the cost of keeping US forces there, and under pressure from President Trump, agreed earlier this year to a substantial increase, with South Korea agreeing to pay $924 million annually.
Since then, Trump had suggested a few times that he wanted more, and that South Korea could easily afford it. His new demand, however, shocked everyone on both sides as he is demanding over five times what South Korea is paying, $4.7 billion annually.
This is raising a lot of questions in South Korea about the viability of keeping the US around, but the bigger task is for US officials, who are trying to somehow justify a $4.7 billion price tag that seemingly came out of nowhere.
South Korea, after all, was paying a lot of the cost of US forces already, then agreed to pay more. It is going to take massive amounts of creative math to even argue that the US presence costs what Trump is now demanding. Early indications are that officials will try to argue that South Korea’s relative economic prosperity is because of the US presence and that the US deserves to take a cut.
But some officials are also worrying that this isn’t an isolated matter, and that what Trump is doing now in South Korea could be a bellwether for upcoming demands in Germany and Japan, other nations Trump has long been keen to get more money out of.
Though Trump seems to believe these nations have no choice but to pay up, they may ultimately decide the US troop presence simply isn’t affordable, and that other arrangements make more sense.
Actually I think this is great, ’cause I want to see what happens when SK says “no”
Pitiful South Korea; first a colony of Japan, then a colony of USA.
That’s the thing about giving in to a bully. Trump likes to see himself as a brilliant negotiator, so he invented a number in order to plausibly be able to say they are ‘meeting in the middle.’ But the US military is supposed to be for national defense, of the US, not aggression or protection rackets for numerous countries. But I realize that following the Constitution is an extreme fringe position at this point.
When you first start giving in to the syndicate and pay them “protection money”……your doomed.
They will raise the protection fee again and again and demand a cut of your profit…….when you finally refuse….they break your bones and destroy you.
The truth of the matter is that the military brass greatly enjoys their luxurious deployments to the bases in Korea, Japan, and Europe, and would be loathe to give them up.
Plus promotion points I’m sure. And extra pay.
With any luck, the Donald’s ancestral slumlord ways will finally convince these hostages to shake the American war machine off their ass, once and for all.
One of the only decent moves Trump has made. Lets just jack our prices up so hard that no one pays for our protection racket anymore.
Trump is just conducting a cost/benefit analysis.
Let’s hope it’s too much for the SK
(sooner or later it will be, rents always go up).
But at any rate,
the cozy little status quo, for over 70 yrs., is finally coming to an end.
If South Korea has any sense at all it will try to get rid of the American bases.
If they can – these guests are hard to get to go home.
Didn’t South Korea just say they would defend North Korea if it was attacked by Japan? Well things have consequences.