Chang Won-sam, right, South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs' chief delegate to defense cost-sharing talks, and his U.S. counterpart Timothy Betts, sign a deal to raise South Korea's contribution to the upkeep of United States Forces Korea (USFK) troops, at the government complex in Seoul on Feb 10. Korea Times file

By Jung Da-min

North Korea downplayed the South Korea-U.S. alliance on Wednesday, a week before the second North Korea-U.S. summit in Hanoi.

Pyongyang's propaganda outlet Uriminzokkiri blasted the U.S. for excessively burdening South Korea for the presence of the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) on its soil. It said the U.S.-South Korea alliance is a deception by the U.S. to exploit South Korea.

On Feb. 10, South Korea signed a provisional agreement to pay 1.0389 trillion won (around $925 million) for the 28,500 USFK personnel in the country, a rise of 8.2 percent year-on-year. The deal, following a tug-of-war over the past 11 months, came when Seoul accepted Washington's demand for a one-year contract, instead of the previous five years, while Washington agreed to adjust the South's contribution to about 1 trillion won.

"No matter how the U.S. speaks about 'alliance' with South Korea, it is only a deception to cover the unequal South Korea-U.S. relationship," the Uriminzokkiri article said. "The process of signing the 'Special Measures Agreement (for defense cost-sharing)' reveals the self-image of the U.S. as a robber while the country disguises itself with a hypocritic identity and talks about 'ally' and 'watertight alliance.'"

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It said the U.S. would ask the South to pay more in negotiations after the one-year contract expires.

The article called for the abolition of the agreement, highlighting some South Korean civic groups' campaigns against it.

Meanwhile, U.S. experts on the latest deal said it is good that it came before the second U.S.-North Korea summit, according to a Voice of America (VOA) report on Feb. 12, as it showed the U.S.-South Korea alliance remained strong.