Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha has refuted U.S. President Donald Trump’s remark that Seoul has agreed to pay 500 million dollars more this year for the shared cost for stationing American troops on the Korean Peninsula.  

Meeting reporters on Wednesday, before embarking on a trip to Poland to attend a security conference there, she assured that South Korea agreed to pay one-point-04 trillion won this year. However, she cautioned Trump’s comments need to be looked into further to determine the precise context. 

At a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Trump said Seoul agreed to pay 500 million dollars more toward its defense a day earlier, at his request, arguing “a couple of phone calls” were made to draw the ally’s agreement on additional payment. 

On Sunday, the two sides formally signed a deal to raise South Korea's contribution this year for maintaining the 28-thousand-500 U.S. troops by 78-point-seven billion won, or eight-point-two percent.