South Korea and the United States have signed a new defense cost-sharing deal. 

Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha and U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Harry Harris signed the tenth Special Measures Agreement(SMA) at the Foreign Ministry in Seoul on Friday afternoon. 

The deal will now be sent to the National Assembly for ratification. The government is expected to ask for parliament’s approval during its session next week. 

On February tenth, the two allies initialed the one-year agreement that will raise South Korea's contribution for maintaining the 28-thousand-500-strong U.S. Forces Korea by eight-point-two percent from last year to about one-point-04 trillion won.

There is speculation that the two countries will launch new negotiations within the first half of the year to decide on the size of the shared defense cost for next year.