SOFA talks make headway on environmental issues

South Korea and U.S. representatives met on Sunday afternoon at the Central Government Complex for a small-group dialogue on revising the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), which governs the treatment of American troops in Korea.

The small-group dialogue, with representation by a number of experts, was arranged in hopes of finding middle ground on issues that were not settled during talks that ended Saturday. According to the original schedule, a joint statement should have been issued Dec. 7.

At the small-group dialogue, the U.S. representatives stepped back from their earlier stance that an environmental clause should be included in the SOFA and that the agreement should take the form of a joint declaration like that between the U.S. and Japan.

Considerable progress was made on the environment, but the two sides could not overcome their differences on legal jurisdiction over criminal suspects.

The U.S. sought measures that would ensure the protection of suspects¡¯ legal rights, while Korea stood its ground by rejecting all U.S. requests that would allow it to overstep or ignore Korean criminal jurisprudence.