한미, 10차 방위비 분담협정, 최종합의엔 이르지 못해

South Korea and the U.S. have met several times this year to try and reach a new deal on sharing the costs of stationing American troops here.
The existing deal expires in just a couple of weeks at the end of the year.
But after meeting in Seoul again this week, the allies still haven't figured it out.
Park Ji-won has the latest.
The latest round of negotiations on the defense cost sharing between South Korea and the U.S. have ended without resulting in a final agreement.
According to a foreign ministry official Friday morning,... the two allies failed to agree on some of the key issues during the three-day talks held in Seoul until Thursday,... including exactly how much South Korea will pay for defense cost sharing.
The official said, there is still a clear difference between the two sides' positions on Seoul's financial contribution,.... towards the stationing of some 28-thousand American troops on the Korean Peninsula.
Under the existing deal, South Korea contributed around 850 million U.S. dollars this year alone,... which is about 50 percent of the total cost of having U.S. troops stationed here.
However, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal,... the Trump administration is reportedly calling for South Korea to make a larger financial contribution,... asking for an about 150 percent increase from the current level.
The South Korean official said,... the Korean government is willing to assume a reasonable and rational level of burden.
The official added that Seoul and Washington will continue close consultations through diplomatic channels,... and additional rounds of talks might be held, if necessary,... probably as early as next month.
Since March this year,... the two sides held ten rounds of negotiations,... led by Ambassador Chang Won-sam and his U.S. counterpart Timothy Betts,.... to sign the new Special Measures Agreement, or SMA,... bilateral agreement between the two allies on sharing defense costs.
Under the SMA,... South Korea pays for South Koreans working at U.S. military bases in the country, as well as costs related to facility construction and logistics.
The two sides are pressed for time,.. as the current five-year SMA,... signed in early 2014,... will expire at the end of this month.
If the two allies fail to reach the deal by the end of the year, the wages of some eight-thousand South Korean workers at the U.S. military bases could be affected.
The official said the two sides are doing their best to minimize any impact on the civilian workers.
Park Ji-won, Arirang News.