President Donald Trump announced Sunday that the United States will substantially reduce joint military exercises with South Korea, citing his relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korea's refusal to join the United States in its conflict with Iran.
Trump made the announcement on Truth Social, according to a report by BBC News. He wrote that the exercises are "not only costly, with much of these costs paid for by the United States of America (as usual!), but send a signal that is totally inappropriate and hostile." He acknowledged the timing was a problem, writing that it was "too late to cancel" because the drills were scheduled to begin Monday.
The 11-day exercise, called Ulchi Freedom Shield, had been announced just the week before at a joint press conference between US and South Korean military leaders. They said the event would be similar in scale to previous years, with about 18,000 South Korean soldiers participating. About 28,500 American military personnel are stationed in South Korea.
South Korea's government said the drills would proceed "as scheduled." North Korea had not commented as of Sunday, though its foreign ministry had already condemned the exercises as "a rehearsal for an aggressive war." This month, North Korea conducted ballistic missile tests banned by the United Nations. The US and South Korea, along with Japan, detected two North Korean missile tests in recent days.
Trump also addressed South Korea's decision to stay out of the US conflict with Iran. He wrote: "While somewhat unrelated (?), I recently asked the President of South Korea if they would like to join us in the Denuclearization of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and they said, 'No thanks!'" Trump has expressed similar displeasure with Japan, France, and the United Kingdom for their hesitance to participate in hostilities with Iran.
Trump's move drew on a pattern from his first term. He suspended the joint exercises with South Korea entirely in 2018 following high-profile diplomacy with Kim. He became the first sitting US president to set foot in North Korea when he visited that year. Less than 24 hours before Sunday's announcement, Trump posted an old photograph of himself and Kim from 2018, writing that the two were great friends "despite the unfriendly look on this particular picture."
US military spokesperson Ryan Donald had said at last week's press conference that the training accounts for the threat posed by North Korean soldiers returning from fighting alongside Russia in Ukraine. Pyongyang has accelerated efforts to expand its nuclear and missile programs since the collapse of the 2019 diplomatic talks between Kim and Trump during his first term.
