29 April,2017 06:02 AM IST | | Agencies
Seoul has declined saying the agreement calls for them providing land and US handling installation
US President Donald Trump
Washington: Even as US President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he will either renegotiate or terminate what he called a "horrible" free trade deal with South Korea and said Seoul should pay for a US anti-missile system that he priced at $1 billion, South Korea's defense ministry said in a statement that there was no change in the existing agreement.
Trump had said the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile system now being deployed in South Korea to defend against a potential missile attack from North Korea would cost about $1 billion and questioned why the United States was paying for it. "I informed South Korea it would be appropriate if they paid. It's a billion-dollar system," Trump said.
South Korean protesters at a rally against THAAD
However, South Korea's defense ministry said that Seoul provides land for the deployment while Washington shoulders the cost of installing and operating the system.
Moon Jae-in, the South Korean presidential frontrunner, said the new government should be given the choice to decide whether to agree to the deployment.
"I'll decide after sufficient public consensus," he said at a televised presidential debate. His top foreign policy adviser earlier said that Trump's suggestion would be an "impossible option" because the US military operates the system.
