Anchor: South Korea and the United States are in talks to resume negotiations for their new defense cost-sharing agreement in Washington next week. While the allies struggle to narrow their differences, U.S. President Donald Trump ramped up pressure on U.S. allies to shoulder a greater burden for hosting U.S. military operations.
Choi You Sun has more.

Report: At his reelection campaign rally in Florida on Tuesday, U.S. President Donald Trump criticized his predecessors for wasting American taxpayers' money on defending rich countries.

[Sound bite: US President Donald Trump Rally in Sunrise, Florida]
"Before my election, our leaders used the great American middle-class as a piggy bank to fund their delusional global projects."

In an apparent effort to mobilize his supporters by pledging to prioritize American interests, Trump stressed that Americans will no longer be forced to sacrifice to subsidize affluent nations.

[Sound bite: US President Donald Trump]
"Remember this, I'm president of the United States. I'm not president of the world.... They decimated American manufacturing to promote economic growth in foreign countries. They used our military to defend immensely wealthy nations… "

Trump's remarks come as Seoul and Washington are expected to resume negotiations in Washington next week to renew their agreement on sharing the cost of stationing American troops on the Korean Peninsula.

Amid differences over the level of increasing Seoul's contribution, Washington suspended the previous round of negotiations in Seoul last week.

During previous rounds of talks, the U.S. reportedly demanded South Korea to quintuple its contribution from just over 870 million dollars this year to nearly five billion dollars.

Seoul, for its part, has argued its share should be decided at a "fair and reasonable" level, within the framework of their past Special Measures Agreement.

Meanwhile, in budget reports to the U.S. Congress in March, the Pentagon estimates it will cost nearly four-point-five billion dollars to operate U.S. Forces Korea in the fiscal year 2020.

The report estimated two-point-one billion dollars for personnel expenses, two-point-two billion for troop operations and maintenance and another one-point-five billion for family housing.
Choi You Sun, KBS World Radio News.