Anchor: U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that South Korea should be paying for its own defense and pay more toward the cost of hosting U.S. troops. His remarks came during a Cabinet meeting at the White House, amid the ongoing tariff negotiations with Seoul.
Kim Bum-soo has more. 

Report: Approximately 28-thousand-500 U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea to help deter another war on the Korean Peninsula. 

Speaking to reporters during a Cabinet meeting Tuesday, President Trump reiterated that Seoul should pay more for that American military presence.

[Sound bite: US President Donald Trump]
"In a very nice way we're talking to them about it. We supplied the military, so many very successful countries. South Korea is making a lot of money and they are very good. They are very good. But, you know, they should be paying for their own military."

Amid ongoing tariff negotiations, the American president suggested he is going to pick up from where he left off during his first term on the matter.

[Sound bite: US President Donald Trump]
"We were like this big monolith that made bad deals with everybody. We rebuilt South Korea, we stayed there. It's okay, we rebuilt it and we stayed there and they pay us very little for the military. Biden canceled it when I came in... "
"You know what Biden did. They went to them and said Trump treated us badly."

During his first term, Trump demanded a fivefold increase in Seoul's defense cost-sharing. 

In negotiations with the subsequent Biden administration in 2021, Seoul agreed to increase its contribution by 13-point-nine percent. 

Under their latest deal signed last year, Seoul agreed to pay one-point-52 trillion won, or around one-point-one billion dollars, starting 2026.

Since returning to the Oval Office, Trump's primary focus with South Korea has been on cutting the trade deficit and reducing defense spending related to the upkeep of U.S. troops on the Korean Peninsula.

He has signaled his intention to strike a comprehensive deal on both trade and security, in what he described as “one-stop shopping.”  

As Washington seeks to revise the terms of the South Korea-U.S. alliance, the Pentagon recently said that South Korea and other Asian allies must spend five percent of their gross domestic product on defense annually.

Currently, South Korea spends about two-point-32 percent of its GDP on defense.
Kim Bum-soo, KBS World Radio News.