Formal Signing of the 12th Special Agreement on Defense Cost-Sharing
2026 Contribution Increased by 8.3% Compared to Previous Year
South Korea and the United States have signed the 12th Special Measures Agreement (SMA). It will be finalized once it receives ratification approval from the National Assembly of South Korea.
On the 4th, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yeol and Philip Goldberg, the U.S. Ambassador to South Korea, formally signed the Korea-U.S. SMA at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs building in Seoul. The agreement sets the 2026 contribution at 1.5192 trillion won, an 8.3% increase from the previous year, and its main content includes reflecting the Consumer Price Index (CPI) increase rate when raising contributions annually until 2030. The agreement will be effective until 2030 once it comes into force. The signing of the 'Implementation Agreement' related to this agreement was also conducted between the Ministry of National Defense’s International Policy Officer and the Chief of Staff of the U.S. Forces Korea Planning Division.
The signed agreement will be promptly submitted to the National Assembly for ratification, the last remaining procedure. South Korea must go through National Assembly ratification for the agreement to officially take effect. In the U.S., the SMA is an administrative agreement and does not require congressional approval. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed expectations that "the agreement will greatly contribute to providing stable conditions for the stationing of U.S. Forces Korea and strengthening the Korea-U.S. combined defense posture."
Since official consultations began in April, the two countries reached a final agreement on the text of the agreement and the implementation agreement after eight rounds of talks over about five months. The 11th SMA was concluded in March 2021, shortly after the Biden administration took office.
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