USFK 'granted' land use within South Korea under SOFA, not on lease: Lee's security advisor
A debate has sparked over remarks by US President Donald Trump suggesting the US should claim "ownership" of land in South Korea used by the American military forces.
"Maybe one of the things I'd like to do is ask them to give us ownership of the land while we have the big fort. You know we spent a lot of money building a fort, and there was a contribution made by South Korea," Trump said during his first in-person meeting with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung in Washington on Monday.
"But I would like to see if we could get rid of the lease and get ownership of the land where we have a massive military base," he added.
The remarks came when he was asked about the 28,500-strong US Forces Korea stationed here.
Lee’s National Security Adviser Wi Sung-lac highlighted to reporters in Washington that under the Status of Forces Agreement between the two allies, the USFK is “granted” the use of facilities and areas within South Korea. This is different from a regular lease, he explained, while adding that he plans to check the exact meaning behind Trump’s remarks.
“The land used by US Forces Korea (in South Korea) is granted, not leased. It’s not something given in exchange for rent, nor does it mean a transfer of ownership,” Wi told a group of Korean reporters after the summit.
“It’s only for use during the period of stationing and under the SOFA, this is defined as a grant. ... It states that facilities and areas are ‘granted,’ with ‘areas’ meaning land.”
Article II of the US-ROK SOFA stipulates that South Korea “grants” land and facilities for US military use. This is not a lease or a transfer of ownership; it is a sovereign grant of use, tied to the defense partnership. When facilities are no longer needed, they are returned to South Korea. ROK stands for South Korea’s official name, the Republic of Korea.
A SOFA is made between two governments and governs the legal status of foreign military forces stationed within a host nation. The US maintains SOFAs with dozens of countries, but each is tailored to specific political and strategic circumstances. The US–ROK SOFA, signed in 1966 and amended several times since, sets out how American troops operate in South Korea and how their activities intersect with Korean law and sovereignty.
Meanwhile, experts suggested that Trump’s comments about "ownership" were likely a bargaining tactic ahead of future security negotiations, since granting actual ownership of the land is legally and politically unfeasible.
Park Won-gon, military expert and professor of North Korean Studies at Ewha Womans University, explained that Trump’s remarks were an indirect way of pressuring South Korea to increase its defense spending and shoulder a larger security burden, possibly by renegotiating the cost-sharing agreement for maintaining the USFK, known as the Special Measures Agreement.
“From the US perspective, converting the land into American property would actually restrict the ‘strategic flexibility’ of US Forces Korea and technically work against American interests,” Park said via phone.
“Trump’s remarks should be understood as pressure related to defense cost-sharing with the message being: ‘Since we are already covering so much of the cost (of the USFK stationed in ROK), South Korea should shoulder more,” he added.
The Trump administration has been increasing pressure on Seoul to shoulder more defense costs in maintaining USFK on the peninsula. In response, Seoul officials reiterated the need to uphold the latest South Korea-US defense cost-sharing deal for the 2026-2030 period, signed during the previous Joe Biden administration.
Seoul is to pay 1.52 trillion won ($1.1 billion) next year for the stationing of USFK here, under the 12th Special Measures Agreement signed with Washington. The figure is up from 1.4 trillion won this year.
mkjung@heraldcorp.com
