On June 19, President Lee Jae Myung reported that during his meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump in France on June 16, which coincided with the Group of Seven (G7) summit, there was no discussion about defense cost sharing. He stated that his view is that it’s already contributing sufficiently, so what additional contributions are needed?
The President made these remarks during an afternoon briefing at the Chunchugwan, where he shared the results of his European and G7 tour.
He noted that there was considerable discussion about this during the U.S. presidential campaign, with claims that South Korea should pay ten times more for the defense costs of U.S. troops stationed here. However, since taking office, they haven’t mentioned it at all. Lee added that he was the one who initially brought up the topic of overall defense spending, not specifically defense cost-sharing.