With respect to the declining ADM, the Department of Defence believes that a fair distribution of burdens between the governments of the United States and the Republic of Korea is in the interests of all parties. We strongly encourage our allies to reach a fair agreement as quickly as possible. The United States has shown great flexibility in its negotiations on the SMA and calls for the ROK to do the same. The United States will host the Republic of Korea (ROK) from October 22-24 in Honolulu, Hawaii, for consultations on the Special Measures Agreement (ADM). The SMA, a kind of burden-sharing agreement, is the mechanism with which the Republic of Korea shares the costs of US forces for the defence of the Republic of Korea. The United States has had ADMs with the Republic of Korea since 1991 and this new agreement will replace the existing SMA, which expires at the end of 2019. Although the United States and the Republic of Korea (ROK) have made some progress in negotiating the Exceptional Measures Agreement (SMA), the two sides do not appear ready to engage in meaningful negotiations. The basic positions of the two countries remain totally different: the United States wants a negotiated agreement that reflects the total cost of ROC defence beyond the existing ADM, including transportation, training and equipment for the Korean Armed Forces (USFK), while the ROK tries to maintain the current framework of the SMA, which covers only three categories : the cost of labor for Korean workers in USFK, logistics costs and construction for USFK. The United States angered workers in South Korea in April after the two allies failed to sign a new cost-sharing agreement. The expiration last year of the 10th Special Measures Agreement (SMA), in which the Republic of Korea partially shared the burden of deploying U.S. forces to the peninsula, and the continued absence of a subsequent agreement resulted in the dismissal of more than 4,000 employees of the Korean National Federation. 6.
Unlike in the past, the ROK and the United States have conducted a comprehensive review and agreement on not only the text of the SMA, but also of the implementation agreement, which contains the details of its implementation. The ROK government intends to present both the SMA and the implementation agreement to the National Assembly to ensure greater transparency with regard to the National Assembly and the Korean people.
