US military warns of furlough for South Korean staff

SEOUL • The US military has begun issuing furlough warnings to almost 9,000 civilian South Korean employees, as Washington and Seoul remain at loggerheads over US President Donald Trump's demand for its ally to pay more money for its hosting of American troops.

The notices inform workers at American military facilities in South Korea that they potentially face administrative furloughs as of April 1, according to a statement issued yesterday by US Forces Korea (USFK).

The two sides remain deadlocked, although US officials have indicated they have backed off Mr Trump's initial demand that South Korean counterpart Moon Jae-in's government pay about US$5 billion (S$6.8 billion) a year for US forces stationed there. That is more than five times the US$900 million in a stop-gap one-year agreement that expired on Dec 31.

South Korea has said there is quite "a big difference in principle" between the two sides.

"Without the Republic of Korea's continued commitment to share the cost of employing our Korean national workforce, USFK will soon exhaust programmed funds available to pay their salaries and wages," the notice said.

Mr Trump's push for South Korea to contribute much more money for what is known as the Special Measures Agreement has put the alliance under strain at a time when North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's regime has said it would no longer be bound by its previous promise to halt testing of nuclear weapons and long-range ballistic missiles.

The union for the South Korean workers has said that operations at the bases would be completely paralysed if there were massive furloughs.

Workers to be directly impacted by such notices have offered to work without pay out of concern over how the situation could harm South Korea's national defence, according to a representative of the USFK Korean Employees Union.

Mr John Rood, US Undersecretary of Defence for Policy, told the House Armed Services Committee that he expected the alliance between the two countries to remain firm despite the differences in funding, and said the South Korean negotiators were "no pushovers".

People familiar with the discussions said American negotiators have shifted their position as they seek to offer a justification for a far bigger price tag.

After initially suggesting South Korea could make more purchases of US defence equipment, the Trump administration is now focused on other elements, such as asking the country to pay more for temporary troop rotations.

Mr Moon is facing parliamentary elections in April and is wary of the political fallout if he agrees to a hefty increase, which has little support in his camp and among his country's general public.

BLOOMBERG