South Korea and the United States will resume negotiations over military cost-sharing issues in Seoul next week.
Seoul’s Foreign Ministry said on Friday the tenth round of negotiations concerning the bilateral Special Measures Agreement(SMA) will be held for three days from Tuesday, where the two sides will have in-depth discussions to coordinate stances based on the previous talks.
According to the ministry, the foreign ministers of the two countries agreed during their meeting in Washington on Thursday that they will continue to encourage the negotiators to produce mutually satisfying results.
The two allies made some progress during the ninth round of talks held in Hawaii last month, but came short of reaching any agreements. Like in the previous talks, Seoul's chief negotiator Chang Won-sam will lead negotiations across from his U.S. counterpart Timothy Betts from the State Department.
A five-year agreement determining the cost burden for stationing American forces in South Korea expires at the end of this month.