<Anchor>

President Trump says South Korea has decided to pay much more for USFK's defense contributions next year. We had to hit players ahead of the negotiations, but our government hasn't had a negotiation team yet.

I'm a clinical reporter.

<Reporter>

One day before US Defense Secretary Mark Esper visited Trump, he named Korea a rich country and made a substantial increase in defense spending next year.

[Trump / US President: For years I felt unfair, so they agreed to pay much more to America. I will agree to pay even more.]

Our government immediately defended.

Far from starting the negotiations, they said that there was no reason to hurry up, saying even the negotiation team had not yet packed up.

The United States has recently set new standards to be applied to the world's garrison of defense-sharing, and it is reported that as we are the first opponent, we will demand up to six times the share of 1.38 trillion won this year.

President Trump's upcoming re-election strikes players with his own speech, and the government emphasizes "rational and fair sharing."

We have to consider North Korea negotiations and the conflict between Korea and Japan, but we have to find a balance point as long as there is a joint security interest.

[Shin Beom-cheol / Director of Security and Unification Center, Asan Institute for Policy Studies: I think we can offset the demands of the United States because there are security contributions that Korea occupies in the US-India-Pacific strategy, and there are substantial contributions such as the dispatch of the Hormuz Strait.]

Tomorrow (9th), US Secretary of Defense Esper.

(Video coverage: Kim Wonbae, Video editing: Oh Young Taek)