South Korea says to build 'perfect' security partnership with new U.S. administration

SEOUL - South Korea's presidential office said on Wednesday that it will build a "perfect" security partnership with a new U.S. administration.

A high-ranking presidential official told reporters South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol was expected to speak to the U.S. president-elect in coming days.

Seoul is a staunch U.S. ally in the region, with some 28,500 American troops stationed in South Korea as part of efforts to deter nuclear-armed North Korea.

For the past two and a half years since Yoon became president, no one on either side of the political aisle in the United States had questioned the importance of the alliance between South Korea and the United States as well as the need to develop it on a global level, the official said.

Last month, Washington and Seoul agreed on a new five-year plan on sharing the cost of keeping American troops in South Korea. Donald Trump, the Republican nominee in the U.S. election, had during his presidency accused South Korea of "free-riding" on U.S. military might, and demanded that it pay as much as $5 billion a year for the U.S. deployment.

Trump claimed victory in the 2024 presidential contest after Fox News projected that he had defeated Democrat Kamala Harris, which would cap a stunning political comeback four years after he left the White House.

The South Korean presidential official, who declined to be identified, also told reporters that North Korean troops had not yet fully engaged in combat against Ukrainian forces.

There was a necessity for South Korea to send a monitoring team to the war in Ukraine, the official said, adding the National Assembly's agreement is not required for sending such personnel for a specific purpose and limited time.

(Reporting by Joyce Lee and Hyonhee Shin; Editing by Ed Davies)