SMA RATIFIED, BUT NEW SMA FORMULA NOT YET READY

C O N F I D E N T I A L SEOUL 000972 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/05/2017 TAGS: KS PARM PREL SUBJECT: SMA RATIFIED, BUT NEW SMA FORMULA NOT YET READY REF: SEOUL 00955 Classified By: POL M/C Joseph Y. Yun. Reasons 1.4 (b,d). ¶1. (U) In a April 2 plenary session, the National Assembly ratified the 2007-2008 Special Measures Agreement (SMA). Of the 245 representatives present, 192 (78.3 percent) voted in favor of the agreement, 28 (11.43 percent) against, and 25 (10.2 percent) abstained. ¶2. (SBU) The Joint U.S.-ROK Cost Sharing Committee, co-chaired by Major General Duane Thiessen of U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) and Director General Kim Kyu-hyun of International Cooperation Division of the Ministry of National Defense (MND),will now meet to execute an Implementation Arrangement for the allocation of the SMA funds. ¶3. (SBU) On April 2, Lee Jeong-kyu, Director of North America Division III of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MOFAT) advised POL-MIL Chief that two supplementary opinions had been attached to the SMA by the National Assembly: - The first requires the next SMA to be ratified before the overall government budget is submitted to the National Assembly in September. In order to obtain National Assembly ratification and incorporate the SMA amount into the budget, the next round of SMA negotiations would need to be finalized by May or June 2008. - The second prohibits using SMA funds for any USFK relocation projects. Asked about the legal force of these two supplementary opinions, Lee would only predict that the next SMA would face major difficulties with National Assembly ratification if it did not adhere to the supplemental opinions. ¶3. (SBU) In a follow-up conversation, Lee notified the Embassy that the new SMA proposal will not/not be ready for discussion on April 13 as more time was needed for ROK interagency approval. MOFAT, therefore, requested to cancel the meeting with PM/SNA Ambassador Robert Loftis that had been set on the margins of the 12th Security Policy Initiative (SPI) talks in Washington. VERSHBOW