(25.04.09) Trump falsely claims Biden ‘terminated’ South Korea deal Biden actually made

 

By Daniel Dale, CNN : Fact check: Trump falsely claims Biden ‘terminated’ South Korea deal Biden actually made
Published 10:58 AM EDT, Wed April 9, 2025

https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/09/politics/fact-check-biden-south-korea-trump

 

 

President Donald Trump tried again Tuesday to rewrite the history of US relations with South Korea.

Trump has repeatedly delivered false assertions about the payments South Korea has made for decades to help cover the cost of the major US military presence in the country (more than 26,000 personnel as of the end of 2024). On Tuesday, he wrote on social media that he had just spoken with South Korean acting President Han Duck-soo about economic issues and about “payment for the big time Military Protection we provide to South Korea.”

Trump then added this: “They began these Military payments during my first term, Billions of Dollars, but Sleepy Joe Biden, for reasons unknown, terminated the deal. That was a shocker to all!”

 

도널드 트럼프 전 대통령은 화요일(현지시간) 다시 한번 미국과 한국의 관계에 대한 역사를 왜곡하려는 시도를 했습니다.

트럼프는 수십 년 동안 한국이 미군 주둔 비용을 분담해온 사실에 대해 반복적으로 허위 주장을 해왔습니다. 현재도 2024년 말 기준 2만6천 명 이상의 미군이 한국에 주둔하고 있음에도 불구하고, 그는 화요일 소셜미디어에 이렇게 썼습니다. “나는 방금 한국의 한덕수 대통령 권한대행과 경제 문제 그리고 우리가 한국에 제공하는 ‘엄청난 수준의 군사적 보호(big time Military Protection)’에 대한 대가(payment)에 대해 이야기했다”고 밝혔습니다.

트럼프는 이어 이렇게 덧붙였습니다. “그들은 내 첫 임기 동안 이 군사비용 지급을 시작했다(Billions of Dollars, 수십억 달러 규모였음). 하지만 졸린 조 바이든(Sleepy Joe Biden)은 알 수 없는 이유로 그 계약을 종료시켰다. 모두에게 충격적인 일이었다!(That was a shocker to all!)”

 

 

Trump’s claim is false in two big ways.

First, South Korea’s payments did not begin during Trump’s first term. The cost-sharing deals known as Special Measures Agreements began in 1991, more than 25 years before Trump took office in 2017.

Second, former President Joe Biden did not terminate a Trump cost-sharing agreement with South Korea. The only Special Measures Agreement signed by the Trump administration had expired by the time Biden took office in 2021 – and Biden’s administration then signed two such agreements, one in 2021 and one in 2024, that both included South Korean spending increases. 

 

트럼프의 주장은 두 가지 중대한 측면에서 사실이 아닙니다.

첫째, 한국의 방위비 분담금 지급은 트럼프의 첫 임기 중에 시작된 것이 아닙니다. ‘특별조치협정(Special Measures Agreements)’으로 알려진 분담금 계약은 1991년에 시작되었으며, 이는 트럼프가 2017년에 취임하기 25년 이상 전의 일입니다.

둘째, 조 바이든 전 대통령이 트럼프 시절의 방위비 분담 협정을 종료시킨 것도 사실이 아닙니다. 트럼프 행정부가 체결한 유일한 특별조치협정은 바이든이 2021년에 취임하기 전 이미 만료되었으며, 이후 바이든 행정부는 각각 2021년과 2024년에 두 건의 새로운 협정을 체결했고, 이 두 협정 모두 한국의 분담금 증액을 포함하고 있었습니다.

 

 

“There was no deal that was ‘terminated,’” Andrew Yeo, a politics professor and Korea expert at The Catholic University of America and The Brookings Institution think tank, said in a Tuesday email. “Trump’s characterization of Biden’s deal with South Korea is inaccurate,” Yonho Kim, an international affairs professor and associate director of the Institute for Korean Studies at The George Washington University, said in a Tuesday email. South Korea increased its payments in both of its cost-sharing deals with Biden Here’s the truth about what happened under Trump and Biden.

 

"어떤 ‘협정이 종료된 것’은 없었습니다."  미국 가톨릭대학교의 정치학 교수이자 브루킹스 연구소의 한국 전문가인 앤드루 여(Andrew Yeo)는 화요일 이메일에서 이렇게 밝혔습니다. "트럼프가 묘사한 (characterization) 바이든 대통령과 한국 간의 합의는 사실과 다릅니다." 조지워싱턴대학교 한국학연구소 부소장이자 국제관계학 교수인 김연호 또한 같은 날 이메일에서 이렇게 말했습니다. 한국은 바이든 행정부와 맺은 두 차례의 방위비 분담 협정 모두에서 분담금을 인상했습니다. 다음은 트럼프와 바이든 행정부 시절 실제로 무슨 일이 있었는지에 대한 사실입니다.

 

 

Trump inherited a South Korea cost-sharing deal negotiated by the Obama administration, which ran from 2014 through 2018. Trump then agreed to a one-year deal for 2019, which secured an 8.2% increase in the South Korean contribution.

That one-year Trump deal was the 10th in the series of Special Measures Agreements that started in 1991, so “it wasn’t as if South Korea began its VERY FIRST cost-sharing payments in 2019,” Jiun Bang, a Colorado College international relations professor, said in a Tuesday email. And Trump was unable to get South Korea to agree to the standard multi-year agreement; South Korea rejected his demands for a giant spending increase in the vicinity of 400%, from less than $1 billion per year to $5 billion per year or close.

 

트럼프 대통령은 오바마 행정부가 협상한 방위비 분담 협정을 물려받았습니다. 이 협정은 2014년부터 2018년까지 유효했습니다.  
그 후 트럼프는 2019년을 대상으로 한 1년짜리 협정에 합의했으며, 이로 인해 한국의 분담금은 8.2% 인상되었습니다.
이 1년짜리 트럼프 협정은 1991년에 시작된 ‘특별조치협정’시리즈 중 10번째였습니다.  따라서 "한국이 2019년에 "처음으로 방위비를 분담하기 시작한 것처럼 말하는 건 사실과 다릅니다"라고 콜로라도칼리지 국제관계학 교수 지운 방(Jiun Bang)은 화요일 이메일에서 밝혔습니다. 트럼프는 한국으로부터 통상적인 다년간 협정에 대한 동의를 얻는 데 실패했습니다.  그는 연간 10억 달러 미만이던 분담금을  약 50억 달러 수준으로, 즉 약 (in the vicinity) 400% 인상할 것을 요구했으나, 한국은 이를 거부했습니다.

 

 

South Korea did come to a smaller deal with the Trump administration in mid-2020 to spend $200 million that year to pay the South Korean employees of US forces, who had been put on leave because Trump’s one-year Special Measures Agreement had lapsed at the end of 2019. But negotiations on a new Special Measures Agreement were still unresolved when Trump left the White House in January 2021.

한국은 2020년 중반, 트럼프 행정부와 더 작은 규모의 합의에 도달해 그해 2억 달러를 지출하기로 했습니다. 이는 2019년 말 트럼프의 1년짜리 방위비 분담 특별협정이 만료(lapsed)되면서 휴직 상태(leave)에 놓였던 주한미군 한국인 직원들의 급여를 지급하기 위한 것이었습니다. 하지만 새로운 방위비 분담 특별협정에 대한 협상은 트럼프가 2021년 1월 백악관을 떠날 때까지 여전히 타결되지 않은 상태였습니다.

 

 

The Biden administration completed the talks in March 2021, agreeing to an 11th Special Measures Agreement to retroactively cover 2020 and continue through 2025. Then, with the possibility of a second Trump term looming, the Biden administration and South Korea signed a 12th agreement in late 2024, to run from 2026 through 2030.

 

바이든 행정부는 2021년 3월에 협상을 마무리하고, 2020년을 소급 적용하고 (retroactively) 2025년까지 지속되는 제11차 방위비 분담 특별협정을 체결했다. 그리고 트럼프의 두 번째 임기 가능성이 다가오자(looming), 바이든 행정부는 한국과 함께 2024년 말에 제12차 협정을 체결했으며, 이는 2026년부터 2030년까지 유효하다.

 

 

Trump claimed during his 2024 presidential campaign that Biden had allowed South Korea’s payments to go “way, way down” to “almost nothing,” but that’s not true, either. South Korea agreed to substantial spending hikes in both of its Biden-era deals.

The agreement signed in 2021 included a 2021 increase of 13.9% – meaning South Korea’s payment that year would be about $1 billion – and then additional increases in 2022 through 2025 tied to increases in South Korea’s defense budget. The agreement signed in 2024 is scheduled to begin with an 8.3% increase in 2026 and then additional increases tied to South Korean inflation.

 

트럼프는 2024년 대선 캠페인 중에 바이든이 한국의 군사 비용 지불을 “완전히, 완전히 줄여서” “거의 아무것도 아닌 수준으로” 만든 것이라고 주장했지만, 그것은 사실이 아닙니다. 한국은 바이든 정부 하에서 두 차례의 협상에서 지출을 크게 (substantial) 증가시키는 데 동의했습니다. 2021년에 서명된 협정은 2021년 동안 13.9% 증가를 포함하고 있었으며, 그 해 한국의 지불액은 약 10억 달러에 달할 것이라고 예상되었습니다. 그리고 2022년부터 2025년까지는 한국의 국방 예산 증가에 맞춰 추가적인 증가가 있을 예정이었습니다. 2024년에 서명된 협정은 2026년부터 8.3% 증가로 시작될 예정이며, 그 이후에는 한국의 물가 상승률에 맞춰 추가적인 증가가 있을 것입니다.

 

 

Trump baselessly claimed in October 2024, as a presidential candidate, that “if I were there now, they’d be paying us $10 billion a year. And you know what? They’d be happy to do it.”

 

트럼프는 2024년 10월 대선 후보로서 근거 없이 “만약 내가 지금 거기 있었다면, 그들은 우리에게 매년 100억 달러를 지불했을 것이다. 그리고 그들, 알고 있지? 기꺼이 그렇게 했을 것이다.(They’d be happy to do it) ”라고 주장했습니다.