Anchor: President Lee Jae Myung’s top security aide, Wi Sung-lac, who attended this week’s NATO summit in Lee’s place, said the U.S. has called on South Korea to take cues from the NATO member states and increase its defense spending to five percent of its gross domestic product(GDP). The White House has communicated similar messages, adding pressure on the country’s Asia-Pacific allies, including Seoul, to shoulder a higher percentage of their own defense costs. 
Choi You Sun has more.

Report: National security adviser Wi Sung-lac has said the U.S. wants South Korea to increase defense spending, in line with a recent agreement by NATO member states to raise theirs to five percent of GDP by 2035.

Wi, who returned from the NATO summit in the Netherlands this week, told reporters late Thursday that Seoul also has been asked to commit to a five percent target — three-point-five percent in direct spending and one-point-five percent in indirect spending.

According to Seoul’s defense ministry, the country’s defense budget this year totals 61-point-two trillion won, or around 45 billion U.S. dollars, accounting for two-point-32 percent of its GDP.

The top security aide said that while no specific details on defense spending were discussed with the U.S. in the Netherlands, Seoul will have to decide how to respond through ongoing working-level discussions.

Meanwhile, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said during a press briefing in Washington on Thursday that if U.S. allies in Europe can raise their defense spending, so can the country’s allies in the Asia-Pacific region.

Leavitt added that it is up to Trump to speak to the specifics in such discussions.

Earlier this week, Joseph Yun, chargé d'affaires ad interim at the U.S. embassy in Seoul, said the allies need to discuss “other costs” related to defense sharing, aside from those covered in the Special Measures Agreement for U.S. Forces Korea.

Yun’s remarks appear to reflect Washington’s position that the two sides should discuss sharing the cost of deploying U.S. strategic assets to the region.
Choi You Sun, KBS World Radio News.