Korea, U.S. fail to conclude SOFA revision

Korea and the United Stated have agreed to hold another round of the talks on the revision of the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) within the office term of President Bill Clinton, ending on Jan. 20, high-ranking government officials disclosed Thursday.

The chief delegates of the two sides conducted negotiations until late Thursday night but failed to narrow their differences on some knotty issues, the officials said. However, the two agreed to hold another round of SOFA talks, noting that failure would be a heavy political burden on the two countries.

Accordingly, the two sides agreed to the contents of their negotiations Friday afternoon, and they are expected to release a joint statement concerning their accord on holding additional talks.

At first, the two governments were scheduled to conclude the SOFA negotiations Thursday and announced the results of the talks at the Central Government Complex, but the plan was aborted because they failed to bridge the gap of differences on some core problems until Wednesday.

Boo Hyung-Kwon bookum90@donga.com