SEOUL: The United States and South Korea have failed to agree on a bigger South Korean share of the cost of maintaining US troops, an official said on Friday, as the US military warned Korean workers they might be put on leave if no deal is reached.

US President Donald Trump has repeatedly said that South Korea should bear more of the burden for keeping some 28,500 US troops in South Korea, where the United States has stationed forces since the 1950-53 Korean War.

Senior officials from both sides held three-day talks in Seoul from Tuesday to hammer out an accord to replace a 2014 deal due to expire this year, which requires South Korea to pay about 960 billion won ($850 million) this year.

Despite 10 rounds of negotiations since March, the two sides struggled to reach an agreement after the United States demanded a sharp increase, South Korean officials said.

“We’ve come to agreement on almost all elements but could not make it final because of differences on the total scale of the deal,” a senior South Korean foreign ministry official said.

In a statement, US Forces in Korea (USFK) said it was seeking a “swift conclusion” to the negotiations “to mitigate a possible lapse in contributions” from South Korea.

“Due to the ongoing consultative talks between US and Republic of Korea (ROK) delegations, we are unable to speculate on potential outcomes,” the statement said.

The United States initially pushed South Korea to increase its share of the burden to about $1.2 billion, The Wall Street Journal reported last week, citing unidentified sources.

South Korean and American officials have not publicly confirmed a dollar amount.

South Korean officials have said the United States asked that South Korea pay for the mobilisation of equipment, such as bombers, nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and submarines, during joint military exercises.

Published in Dawn, December 15th, 2018