The signing ceremony of the South Korea-U.S. defense agreement...National Assembly ratification process

South Korea and the U.S. have officially signed the 12th Special Agreement on the Sharing of Defense Expenses and entered the parliamentary ratification process.

Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yeol and U.S. Ambassador to Korea Philip Goldberg signed the 12th Special Agreement on the Sharing of Defense Expenses at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs building in Seoul today.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the agreement will greatly contribute to providing conditions for a stable presence of U.S. troops in South Korea and strengthening the South Korea-U.S. joint defense posture.

In the agreement, the two sides agreed to return the annual growth indicator from the defense expenditure growth rate to the "consumer price index growth rate."

The signed defense agreement will be submitted to the National Assembly as soon as possible for parliamentary ratification.