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south korea's ministry of foreign affairs said on the 23rd that south korea will launch the eighth round of negotiations on the relevant agreement with the united states in the capital seoul from the 25th to the 27th, hoping to share the cost of us troops stationed in south korea within a reasonable range.

in april this year, south korea and the united states launched negotiations on the 12th special agreement on defense cost sharing, and completed the seventh round of negotiations at the end of last month. south korean media reported that the us side said that the negotiations "made good progress", suggesting that the two sides have narrowed their differences to a certain extent.

according to south korean media, whether the eighth round of negotiations can be concluded before the us presidential election in november has attracted much attention. previously, the trump administration had offered south korea a share of the cost of about $5 billion per year, five times the previous cost, but south korea rejected it.

there are currently about 28,500 us troops stationed in south korea. south korea has been sharing the cost of stationing troops since the 1990s. the two countries have signed 11 special agreements on defense cost sharing, and the 11th agreement will expire at the end of 2025. according to the agreement, south korea's defense cost in 2021 is us$1.03 billion, an increase of 13.9% from 2019.

for a long time, the us military stationed in south korea has frequently committed crimes such as sexual assault, alcoholism, drug trafficking, and environmental pollution, which has caused strong dissatisfaction among local people. the us military bases in south korea have a bad record in the field of biosafety. in 2015, a us military laboratory sent active anthrax samples to the osan us military base in south korea and conducted biological experiments in south korea, which triggered continuous protests from the public. (end) (huang aiping)

(source: xinhua news agency)

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