<Anchor>

"We have agreed that Korea will pay much more in the future," he said, but he did not even begin defense negotiations. Our government is in a position to discuss at the negotiating table.

I'm Kim Hye-young.

<Reporter>

President Trump met with reporters at the White House and complained about defense contributions, saying "I haven't got anything from Korea."

He said South Korea agreed to pay even more defense costs.

[Trump / US President: We are virtually not receiving anything. For years I felt unfair, so they agreed to pay much more to America. I will agree to pay much more.]

Trump said earlier in his tweet that he called South Korea a `` very rich country, '' and that the ROK agreed to pay significantly more money to defend itself from North Korea.

In response, our government says that negotiations on contributions have not yet begun and that they have never agreed to increase their contributions.

In the face of imminent ante negotiations, President Trump's talks about Korea's increase agreement could be interpreted as a bold move to a massive hike.

There is a concern that the new US Secretary of Defense, Esper, who is visiting Korea today, will meet with Secretary of Defense Chung Kyung-Doo tomorrow to issue a bill that has increased significantly, but the Korean government cannot accept an unreasonable large-scale hike. This is expected.