SEOUL, Nov. 21 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's foreign ministry said Tuesday that it started running a task force team to prepare for negotiations on how much costs the country would share with the United States to operate U.S. troops stationed here.
Foreign ministry spokesman Noh Kyu-duk told a press briefing that the task force team was launched Monday to brace for negotiations on the defense cost-sharing deal, which was scheduled to terminate by the end of next year.
The task force team is composed of working-level officials from the foreign and defense ministries, the spokesman added.
A week earlier, the ministry named Chang Won-sam, South Korean ambassador to Sri Lanka, as a top negotiator to negotiate with the U.S. side about how much cost the country would share to maintain about 28,500 U.S. soldiers stationed in the country.
Under the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), South Korea provides land and facilities free of charge for U.S. Forces Korea (USFK), while the United States pay for costs to run U.S. troops stationed in South Korea.
From the 1990s, South Korea began to share the costs for U.S. troops here under the Special Measures Agreement (SMA).
The first round of SMA negotiations was held in 1991. The negotiation has been held every five years. The current SMA accord is set to terminate in December next year.
Under the current SMA accord, signed in early 2014, South Korea reportedly paid about 1 trillion won (900 million U.S. dollars) every year for defense costs for U.S. forces here.
