U.S. President Donald Trump reportedly made remarks hinting it was easy for him to make South Korea pay more for the cost of stationing American troops on the Korean Peninsula.

According to the New York Post on Sunday, Trump attended a fundraising event for his reelection campaign on Friday and boasted about getting Seoul to pay more for the cost of U.S. defense, referring to a time he joined his father in collecting rent checks as a child.

Trump said it was "easier to get a billion dollars from South Korea than to get 114 dollars and 13 cents from a rent-controlled apartment in Brooklyn," adding "those 13 cents were very important."

He also said South Korea is a rich nation that "makes great TVs and has a thriving economy," adding the country should shoulder more burden of the cost. 

Under the current one-year deal between the allies set to expire on December 31, Seoul agreed to pay one-point-04 trillion won this year, an increase of eight-point-two percent from 960 billion won last year.

Ahead of Seoul and Washington's upcoming negotiations for the new Special Measures Agreement(SMA), Trump claimed last week that talks to increase South Korea's contribution have begun and that Seoul "has agreed to pay substantially more money."

South Korea's Foreign Ministry denied both these claims, saying negotiations have yet to begin.