Trump to scale back U.S. joint military exercises with South Korea
by Darryl Coote & Thomas Maresca · UPISEOUL, Aug. 16 (UPI) -- U.S. President Donald Trump said Sunday he ordered the Pentagon to scale back its joint military exercises with South Korea, citing his "very good relationship" with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and saying that Seoul declined to help with the denuclearization of Iran.
In a social media post, Trump said the drills scheduled for this week are expensive and "send a signal that is totally inappropriate and hostile" to North Korea. He said Pyongyang "has been unthreatening and respectful" while he has been in the White House.
"Therefore, and based on the fact that it is too late to cancel, I have instructed Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, to substantially reduce the Joint Military Exercises!" Trump wrote.
Trump did not elaborate on what assistance he had sought from South Korea regarding Iran or explain how Seoul's position was connected to the military exercises.
Trump's post came ahead of the allies' annual Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise, which began Monday and will run through Aug. 27. Military officials said last week the drills will focus on preparing for evolving threats from North Korea.
Some 18,000 South Korean troops are participating alongside their American counterparts in training that includes live field maneuvers, computer simulation-based command post exercises and related civil defense drills.
In a text message to reporters on Monday, an official with Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff said the drills started as scheduled.
"The UFS exercise is proceeding as planned," the official said.
Later in the day, the presidential Blue House released a statement saying that Seoul was "paying close attention" to Trump's comments, adding that it hoped that friendly relations between Washington and Pyongyang would lead to meaningful peace talks between the two countries.
"To this end, we will exert necessary diplomatic efforts as a pacemaker under close cooperation with the United States," the statement said.
The Blue House added that it has actively participated in international discussions for a ceasefire in Iran and freedom of passage in the Strait of Hormuz and is "closely discussing practical and military contribution measures with the U.S. side."
It was not immediately clear what aspects of the exercise would be reduced under Trump's order or whether the Pentagon had issued new instructions to U.S. forces participating in the drills.
North Korea, which has long condemned the exercises as preparations for invasion, last week denounced the scheduled drills, describing them as a provocation that would raise tensions in the region.
Pyongyang also frequently responds to the allies' exercises with weapons tests, and on Wednesday fired a ballistic missile toward the East Sea, Seoul's military said, less than a week after a similar launch.
Trump's announcement drew criticism from opposition politicians, including Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly, a former Navy pilot, who noted that North and South Korea are still technically at war.
"Our ability to help defend our ally against the North Koreans is because our forces are well trained and able to coordinate with the South Koreans," Kelly wrote in a post on X. "Hollowing out these joint exercises is shortsighted and a mistake."
Defense analysts also questioned the move.
"Watering down U.S.-South Korea military exercises is a risky move that lowers coalition readiness and puts U.S. forces at risk with no real tangible benefit to the United States," Rear Adm. (Ret.) Mark Montgomery, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told UPI in an email.
"Kim Jong Un is not America's friend, he cannot be reasoned with, and he won't give up his nuclear weapons," Montgomery wrote.
In a commentary published Sunday, David Maxwell, executive director of the Korea Regional Review, said Kim wants the allies' exercises reduced but not completely eliminated, arguing that they serve to justify the development of North Korea's nuclear and weapons programs.
"He wants to weaken ROK/U.S. combined readiness, drive a wedge in the ROK/U.S. alliance and create conditions such that the U.S. must withdraw troops," Maxwell wrote. "But he still needs exercises for domestic propaganda purposes."
Trump has called for suspending or scaling back the exercises since his first term, when he pursued direct diplomacy with Kim that included summits in Singapore and Hanoi and a brief meeting at the DMZ.
After the Singapore summit in 2018, Trump surprised observers by announcing that the United States would halt what he called "provocative" joint military exercises with South Korea. That year's Ulchi Freedom Guardian exercise was canceled, while several subsequent drills were reduced in scale.
Trump's announcement Sunday came one day after he posted a June 2019 photo of himself standing next to Kim at the inter-Korean truce village of Panmunjom in the DMZ, writing that the two leaders "get along GREAT!"
Trump has repeatedly expressed a willingness to meet Kim during his second term, fueling speculation that he is looking to restart the summit diplomacy that marked his first administration.