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The U.S. government has asked that the costs of modernizing USFK's Command and Control, Communications, Computers and Intelligence (C4I) be included on the list of defense costs to be shared with the Korean government. Controversy is expected as this runs counter to the Umbrella Agreement (UA) on the Yongsan Garrison relocation, in which it said the U.S. would assume the costs of improving or upgrading USFK C4I, with the exception of the costs of transferring it with the Yongsan Garrison and replacing parts when needed.
An official from the Foreign Ministry said Monday that ahead of full-scale negotiations on defense cost sharing this year, the government conveyed its initial requests, and the U.S. side did likewise through diplomatic channels last week. The Korean side was considering the requests, he said. The U.S. side said in its initial requests that it hoped C4I costs would be included in the USFK basing costs and shared defense cost funds might be used to fund modernization of USFK's C4I. The official said, however, that the government would keep to the UA as it negotiated and try to ensure that C4I modernization costs were not passed on to the Special Measures Agreement (SMA) or any other section. He added that in the U.S. proposal there were other rents, public bills and facility upkeep costs.
The U.S. side had worked to include USFK C4I modernization in the Yongsan Garrison transfer, but dropped the issue when Korea expressed its disapproval. It is now trying to solve the issue through the cost sharing talks. According to the UA, the government would assume the costs of moving USFK's C4I facilities from Yongsan to Osan-Pyeongtaek, and facilities with new ones if the existing ones could not be re-used, and those costs were not surpass US$9 million.
Concerning a cost-sharing agreement for next year, the Foreign Ministry had initially set as its goal to begin full-scaled discussions with the U.S. in November and finish those discussions by the end of the fiscal year in late December. Because of the C4I modernization issue, however, those discussions may be prolonged. This year, our government contributed US$623 million for USFK, and next year, too, the U.S. is expected to request an increase about US$77 million, based on the "2002-2004 Agreed Increase Rate" that calls for 8.8 percent annual increase plus inflation.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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