South Korean Support and Willingness to Pay

There’s an interesting piece by Timothy S. Rich, Maggie Fields, Kierigan McEvoy, and Joe Black at The Diplomat on South Koreans’ support for U. S. military presence in their country and willingness to pay for it:

Conventional wisdom suggests that, outside of high-profile scandals such as rape cases, the South Korean public remains generally positive about the U.S. military presence. This is despite tensions in recent years about the costs of hosting U.S. troops. For example, in 2020, the Trump administration demanded a fivefold increase in South Korea’s payments for U.S. military costs, rejecting a 14 percent increase proposed by the Moon administration. The Biden administration ultimately agreed on a six-year extension with increases over time.

However, little attention has been to paid to what the South Korean public sees as a fair cost-sharing arrangement, and how this corresponds with overall evaluations of the U.S. presence.

It’s tricky to calculate how much of the cost of stationing U. S. forces within South Korea is borne by South Korea but estimates are between 30% and 44%. Said another way few doubt that the U. S. bears the majority of the costs.

The bottom line is that a narrow majority of South Koreans support the U. S. military presence in South Korea but most South Koreans support bearing a lower proportion of the cost than they do at present.