Trump prefers "top-down"...Communication alert to impeachment

[Anchor]
U.S. President-elect Trump is well known for his preference for the so-called "top-down" method of directly deciding major issues.

When he takes office soon, he is expected to put pressure on South Korea to renegotiate its defense cost sharing,

The fact that the president who will negotiate with Trump is vacant is a real problem for our government.

Reporter Hong Sun-ki reports.

[Reporter]
U.S. President-elect Trump held two summits with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to directly discuss the North Korean nuclear issue during his first term in office.

[Donald Trump/Then U.S. President (June 2018): We will begin the process of denuclearizing North Korea. I believe Chairman Kim will begin denuclearization virtually immediately. I've already expressed my intention to do that.

Although the "Hanoi No Deal" did not produce results, it is an example of Trump's "top-down" approach to directly negotiate major diplomatic issues.

Even after the inauguration of the second administration, Trump is likely to directly engage in negotiations on North Korea's nuclear weapons program.

This is because he still shows off his friendship with Chairman Kim Jong-un and shows confidence in solving the North Korean nuclear issue.

At the same time, the prevailing observation is that the Korean government will demand renegotiation of the US military's contribution to defense costs.

Although our government has rushed to reach a contribution agreement with the Biden administration by 2030, Trump has made it public that it is a non-sexual amount.

[Donald Trump/U.S. President-elect (October last year): If I were there, I would pay $10 billion (W14.5 trillion) a year. It's because Korea is a "money machine."

Based on the current agreement, the South Korea-U.S. defense cost share next year is about one-tenth of the level Trump wants, so if renegotiations occur, it is expected to cause tremendous pain.

In the end, it seems that there will be more situations where we will have to negotiate with Trump in terms of diplomacy and security, and the problem is the domestic situation.

This is because the president and the prime minister are on the impeachment bench, making it virtually impossible to hold a summit.

[Victor Cha / Chair of the U.S. Institute for Strategic and International Studies Korea: (Korea's) leadership vacuum is a big problem. Everything that can be done by the foreign minister or the head of the national security office will not work in the Trump administration.]

With the possibility of the presidential vacancy continuing through the first half of this year if it continues to the presidential election following the impeachment trial, the Korean government's struggles ahead of the inauguration of the Trump administration are deepening.

This is YTN Hong Seon-gi.