President Trump is always on the lookout for the best deal for America. Some deals make everyone happy and sometimes you just have to walk away. Unfortunately, Trump had to walk away from our long-standing ally South Korea.
The US and South Korea have jointly protected the Korea peninsula for decades. Both countries have split the cost relatively evenly, though one’s definition of “even” can differ from others. Still, it seemed that America has had a fair deal thus far.
Trump was looking for a little more commitment from South Korea going into 2020 given North Korea’s increased aggression and weapons testing activity. He was merely looking for “fair and equitable burden-sharing” from our ally. So, what was originally meant to be about $1 billion from South Korea for US aid turned into $4.7 billion under Trump’s proposal.
The third round of negotiations was cut off abruptly after South Korea refused to take this offer seriously.
South Korea & the US announced today that the ongoing negotiation for dividing the cost for maintaining US troops on the Korean peninsula ended abruptly. The chief US negotiator said the S. Korean proposals were not responsive to US demands for “fair & equitable burden-sharing”
— Ryan Browne (@rabrowne75) November 19, 2019
“We cut short our participation in the talks today in order to give the Korean side some time to reconsider and I hope to put forward new proposals that would enable both sides to work towards a mutually acceptable agreement in the spirit of our great alliance.”
-James DeHart, Chief US Negotiator
Do you think America has been getting a fair deal to help protect South Korea all this time, or is Trump simply asking for a more equitable result? Comment below and let us know what you think.
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