SEOUL, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- South Korea and the United States will hold a new round of negotiations over the defense cost-sharing of the expense of U.S. troops stationed in South Korea, the Foreign Ministry said Wednesday.
South Korea and the U.S. will hold the second high-level talks on setting the cost-sharing ratio for the coming years in Seoul on Aug. 28-29, South Korea's Yonhap News Agency quoted an official assaying.
The two countries will make joint efforts to find a way for sharing the cost in an adequate and reasonable manner in this round of talks, South Korean Foreign Ministry said.
There are about 28,500 U.S. troops stationing in South Korea.
During the previous round of the negotiations, which was held in Washington on July 21, Washington demanded Seoul increase its share of the cost from last year's 42 percent to 50 percent and allow the U.S. to use part of the money for the relocation of the U.S. troops base out of Seoul. South Korea rejected the demand and proposed to change the cost-sharing method to sending materials on a case-by-case basis rather than paying a lump sum of cash, Yonhap said.
