South Korea and the United States started negotiations to renew their defense cost-sharing agreement.
South Korea's Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday that the first round of two-day negotiations began in Seoul earlier in the day.
Washington is expected to demand a dramatic increase in Seoul's contribution to the cost of stationing American troops on the Korean Peninsula in the new Special Measures Agreement(SMA) set to take effect next year.
Seoul, on the other hand, will seek a "reasonable and fair" level of increase as stated by President Moon Jae-in during his summit with U.S. President Donald Trump in New York on Monday.
Trump has long demanded South Korea pay more for the U.S. troop presence, claiming on Twitter last month that the U.S. ally has agreed to pay "substantially more," an assertion Seoul denied.
Under the current one-year SMA 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.