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| Kim Hyun-chong, deputy chief of Cheong Wa Dae's National Security Office |
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| Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha |
Washington is expected to shift more of the cost burden to Seoul for the 2020 Special Measures Agreement (SMA) amid U.S. President Donald Trump's intensifying political pressure.
The government is in the final phase of deciding on the members of the delegation, including its leader, and is expected to announce details sometime after the nation's Chuseok holidays which fall at the end of this week.
"As of now, it has not been officially decided who will lead the South Korean delegation for the upcoming defense cost sharing talks," a government official said. The source did not rule out the likelihood of a finance ministry official heading the delegation.
The government is expected to announce details of the delegation sometime in a near future after the nation's thanksgiving holiday, according to him. Seoul's foreign ministry declined to comment on the detailed timeline for the announcement.
South Korea and the U.S. agreed to pay 1.04 trillion won ($872 million) for the 2019 SMA, up 8.2 percent from the previous year. The increase was not as high as the government had expected, but both sides also reached a consensus to renew the contract annually instead of every five years.
The South Korean government has reiterated its position, seeking to sign a "fair and reasonable" deal with its U.S. counterpart. The SMA is to share costs for the upkeep of the 28,500 U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) troops here.
But with Trump expressing his repeated discontent over what he called Seoul's relatively small cost-sharing burden, expectations are the 2020 SMA will be one of the toughest negotiations for Seoul so far.
Ever since the allies started signing the deal in 1991, government officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of National Defense in Seoul have taken on the role of a chief negotiator.
Amid the growing pressure from Trump, it seems likely that the South Korean government will select a former or incumbent ranking official from the Ministry of Economy and Finance as the top negotiator.
Kim Hyun-chong, deputy chief of Cheong Wa Dae's National Security Office, is also rumored to have put pressure on the foreign ministry to pick an official from the finance authority as the top negotiator.
Kim, the country's most-seasoned trade specialist, is standing at the center of key diplomatic decisions. More specifically, the presidential aide is cited as a key figure underlining the importance of pragmatic diplomacy.
Under possible pressure from Kim, chances are that the foreign ministry, the competent authority for the defense cost sharing negotiation, can tap the official from the finance ministry as the delegation chief.
The possibility came against the backdrop of rumors that Kim and Foreign Minister Kang Kyun-wha are not on good terms.
Last month, the presidential house decided to scrap the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA), a military information-sharing pact between South Korea and Japan. But conflicts have ensued over the rather abrupt decision, as the foreign and defense ministries did not expect Cheong Wa Dae to nullify the deal.
This has raised concerns that the presidential house and the foreign ministry does not have enough communication.
Later last month, First Vice Foreign Minister Cho Sei-young called in U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Harry Harris to lodge a complaint over Washington's repeated delivery of public messages in opposition to the South Korean government's decision to scrap GSOMIA.
This was a very rare occasion that the foreign ministry summoned the U.S. ambassador, so some critics raised the likelihood that this was an order from Cheong Wa Dae.
