US ambassador urges Seoul to compromise on troop payments 12-year-old girl found alive after remaining buried for 18 hours after avalanche in POK
SEOUL: Washington has compromised in its demands that South Korea should pay billions of dollars towards US troop presence and it was Seoul's turn to reciprocate, the American ambassador said Thursday.
The two allies are in a security alliance and Washington stations 28,500 troops in South Korea to defend it from the nuclear-armed North, which invaded in 1950.
They are a key part of US forces' deployment in Asia, but the Trump administration has been insisting Seoul pay more towards their costs.
The initial US demand was around USD 5 billion a year -a more than fivefold increase on the roughly USD 900 million paid in 2019 -- provoking consternation in Seoul.
The latest round of negotiations concluded without an agreement in Washington on
The initial US demand was around USD 5 billion a year -- a more than fivefold increase on the roughly USD 900 million paid in 2019 -- provoking consternation in Seoul
Wednesday.
US negotiators had "adjusted our position, our top line number", said Ambassador Harry Harris.
"We are now waiting for the Korean side to do the same."
"South Korea as an equal partner in the preservation of peace on the peninsula, and its position as the 12th largest economy in the entire world, can and should do more."
Time was "of the essence", he told reporters in a group interview at his residence in the centre of Seoul.
Around 10,000 South Koreans working for United States Forces Korea (USFK) are paid from funds from last year's deal and when they run out, they will have to be put on furlough, he said.
"That notice is going to go out soon." Other US allies would face similar demands from Washington in the future, added Harris, a former Navy admiral and commander of US Pacific Command.
"Korea just happens to be the first country whose SMA expires," he said. "Japan is next. And then we go around from there."
ISLAMABAD: A 12-yearold girl has miraculously survived after remaining buried for 18-hours after a massive avalanche hit her house in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir's Neelum Valley, officials said. Samina Bibi lived with her family in a three-storey house in Neelum Valley when the building was hit by an avalanche and got engulfed by snow on Tuesday.
She was found alive during the rescue operation by the disaster management authorities on Wednesday and had suffered a leg fracture, with blood oozing from her mouth, Geo News reported. She was later shifted to a hospital in Muzaffarabad where she is undergoing treatment and is said to be out of danger.
"It was not less than a miracle that Samina was alive after the natural calamity," Shahnaz, the mother of Shamina, said. However, Shahnaz lost a son and another daughter in the tragedy. Neelum Valley in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (POK) is among several places in Pakistan that has been hit by massive avalanches.
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