Karina Bovsunovskaya14:16, 16.10.24

Trump said this is due to North Korea’s powerful strength.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has stressed that South Korea would have to pay billions of dollars more each year to host American troops in the country if he were president, Bloomberg reports .

South Korea is a “money machine,” he said.

“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. It’s a money machine, South Korea,” Trump said in an interview with the publication.

Bloomberg recalled that these words came less than two weeks after the US and South Korea concluded a new five-year agreement on sharing the costs of deploying US troops on the divided peninsula. The agreement states that South Korea will increase its share of the costs to $1.13 billion in 2026, which is 8.3% more than in 2024.

“The cost-sharing of U.S. troops based in South Korea has been a bone of contention during Trump’s tenure. Trump then asked South Korea to contribute about $5 billion to support about 28,000 U.S. troops in the region, significantly more than the roughly $1 billion annually Seoul had agreed to pay under a previous agreement,” the article emphasized.

In turn, the new agreement states that the amount for four years after 2026 will show an increase in inflation, limiting annual growth to 5%, the South Korean Foreign Ministry noted.

The publication added that while another US presidential candidate, Kamala Harris, is likely to stick to the current direction of security policy if she wins, Trump has repeatedly criticized US partners for not spending enough on defense measures.

“North Korea is a very serious power, it has a huge nuclear power. And I told South Korea that you have to pay,” Trump said, adding that he has a “very good relationship” with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

(C)UNIAN 2024