The U.S. alliance with South Korea has stood firm for more than six decades regardless of politics in Washington, a U.S. Defense Department official said Wednesday.
Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman made the remark in response to a question about Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump’s accusations that South Korea is getting a defense free ride from the U.S.
“We have 65 years of alliance with the Republic of Korea, decades-old alliance with the Republic of Korea. I don’t see that alliance changing,” Davis told reporters after a Foreign Press Center briefing.
“Our commitment has been long-term; it’s been enduring. It has stood constant, regardless of whom the president was, regardless of which party was in power, and I don’t see that changing,” he said.
Trump has repeatedly made such unfounded criticism, even though South Korea has shouldered part of the burden needed for the upkeep of 28,500 American troops stationed in South Korea to deter aggression from the communist North.
The billionaire real-estate mogul made the latest accusations in his new book, released Tuesday and titled “Crippled America,” claiming that countries that depend on the U.S. for protection should pay for the troops and the equipment the U.S. is providing.
The presence of U.S. troops in South Korea is a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended in a truce, not a peace treaty, leaving the divided peninsula still technically at war.
Seoul has long shared the cost of stationing U.S. forces.
Last year, the two countries renewed their cost-sharing agreement, known as the Special Measures Agreement, with Seoul agreeing to pay 920 billion won ($886 million) for the upkeep of the U.S. troops in 2014, a 5.8 percent increase from a year earlier.
Moreover, the American military presence on the peninsula is seen as in line with U.S. national interests in a region marked by a rising China. (Yonhap)
