KEI's Kyle Ferrier Asks What Does the Signed Cost Sharing Agreement Mean for the US-South Korea Alliance?
February 15, 2019
In his latest piece for The Diplomat, KEI Director Kyle Ferrier dissects the newly signed U.S.-ROK Special Measures Agreement (SMA) and laments that the burden sharing agreement is merely a stopgap measure.
Moreover, he observes that Trump's comments such as: “Maybe someday [we’ll remove U.S. troops in Korea]. I mean, who knows. But you know it’s very expensive to keep troops there. You do know that. We have 40,000 troops in South Korea; it’s very expensive.” And his exaggeration of how much Korea has agreed to contribute all point to future friction around this issue.
Ferrier concludes that though the conclusion of the SMA is nonetheless a positive turn of events, it seems only a matter of time before the issue will re-emerge.
Read the article here