South Korea and the United States held a third round of negotiations in Seoul on Monday to renew their cost-sharing deal for stationing American troops on the Korean Peninsula.

South Korea's chief negotiator Jeong Eun-bo and his U.S. counterpart James DeHart sat down together at 1 p.m. at the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses. 

A Foreign Ministry official said that the two sides proceeded earnestly during the roughly four-hour-long talks and presented their respective positions.

Diplomatic sources said that in previous rounds, the U.S. demanded South Korea pay nearly five billion dollars next year, about five times more than the current one-point-04 trillion won, to cover upkeep costs of U.S. troops in South Korea as well as the deployment of assets to protect the country.

Attention is being drawn to whether the U.S. lowered its ask in the latest negotiation round following rising criticism that its demands are excessive.

Outside the venue for negotiations, dozens of civic groups protested the U.S.' calls for a fivefold cost increase and demanded that U.S. forces in South Korea be reduced in size.

Jeong and DeHart will continue their negotiations on Tuesday.