Trump: "Korea Pays More for ROK-US Exercises... Biden Cancels"

Former U.S. President Donald Trump [Image source=Yonhap News]

Former U.S. President Donald Trump claimed that during his tenure, an agreement was made for South Korea to pay more for the combined U.S.-South Korea military exercises, and that South Korea actually paid a larger amount, but that the Biden administration later nullified the agreement.

On the 13th (local time), Trump made this claim in a video posted on his social media platform 'Social Truth,' which he created. Earlier, on the 21st of last month, he had also posted content with similar claims on the same platform.

Regarding the combined U.S.-South Korea military exercises, Trump said, "Even I, when I was president, continuously complained that the cost of these very expensive and provocative exercises was high, yet South Korea was paying almost nothing," criticizing the South Korean government by saying, "They should pay the costs." He added, "There was an agreement between South Korea and me for them to pay the full cost to us (the U.S.)," and stated, "We were supposed to receive billions of dollars from South Korea, a very wealthy country."

However, he claimed that after he left the White House and the Biden administration took office, the negotiations with South Korea were forgotten. He said, "(South Korea) started paying a very large amount of money, but the Biden administration did not demand anything from South Korea nor follow up," calling it "really ridiculous." Trump repeated three times that it was "very unfortunate" that such a situation occurred.

The claim in the video that the U.S. was to receive billions of dollars from South Korea for the combined military exercises appears to be factually unclear.

According to the National Defense Ministry and the Joint Chiefs of Staff’s audit report submitted to the National Assembly’s Defense Committee in October 2019, from 2016 to 2019, the U.S. and South Korea conducted about two joint exercises annually, with average costs estimated around 2 billion won.

The "billions of dollars" Trump claimed is comparable to the total defense cost-sharing amount. In 2019, the Trump administration, during negotiations for the 11th Special Measures Agreement (SMA) with South Korea, demanded a total of $5 billion from South Korea, including costs for the rotational deployment of U.S. troops in South Korea and the combined military exercises. This amount exceeded five times South Korea’s annual contribution (1.0389 trillion won).

Additionally, in the video, Trump also mentioned his acquaintance with North Korean State Affairs Commission Chairman Kim Jong-un. He said, "I got to know Kim Jong-un of North Korea and got along very well with him," adding, "People tell me not to say such things, but why shouldn’t I? It’s not a bad thing; it’s a good thing." He further stated, "He (Chairman Kim) is not happy about the large-scale exercises and air drills conducted jointly by the U.S. and South Korea and feels threatened."