President Donald Trump has ordered the Pentagon to “substantially reduce” joint military exercises with South Korea, citing his “very good relationship” with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Seoul’s refusal to join the United States in what he called the “denuclearisation” of Iran. The decision, announced on Truth Social on Sunday, landed less than 24 hours before the annual Ulchi Freedom Shield drills were due to start. The move disrupts a longstanding summer fixture for the two countries’ armed forces. It drew an immediate response from Seoul.
South Korea’s Ministry of Defence said the exercises would “proceed as previously notified and scheduled.” The 11-day drills, running from August 17 to 27, involve 18,000 South Korean soldiers and are designed to prepare forces for defense against the nuclear-armed North, which is battle-hardened from its involvement in Russia’s war on Ukraine. About 28,500 American military personnel are stationed in South Korea. Trump said it was too late to cancel the drills entirely, so he directed Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to scale them back.
A familiar gesture toward Pyongyang
Trump wrote on Truth Social that he was “not happy with the fact that the United States has, long ago, agreed to participate in Joint Military Exercises with South Korea.” He said 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” toward North Korea, which he described as “unthreatening and respectful” during his time in the White House. The post came less than a day after he shared an old photograph of himself and Kim from 2018, writing that the two were great friends “despite the unfriendly look on this particular picture.”
This is not the first time Trump has moved to curtail the exercises. He suspended them entirely in 2018 during denuclearisation negotiations with Kim, after a historic summit in Singapore, calling the drills “expensive” and “provocative.” The exercises were scaled back again in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic. During his first term, Trump met Kim three times and became the first sitting US president to set foot in North Korea, visiting seven years ago. Pyongyang has accelerated efforts to expand its nuclear and missile programmes since the collapse in 2019 of Kim’s high-profile diplomacy with Trump during his first term.
Allies and adversaries
Trump’s remarks extended beyond the peninsula. He wrote that he had recently asked the president of South Korea whether the country would join the United States in the “denuclearization of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” and that the answer was, “No thanks!” The comment seemed to hint at possible frustration with Seoul for declining to make direct military or logistical contributions to US hostilities with Iran. He has also expressed displeasure with Japan, France, and the UK for their hesitance to join the conflict.
Pyongyang has not commented on Trump’s announcement. But North Korea’s foreign ministry condemned the joint drills on Friday, calling them “a rehearsal for an aggressive war.” Pyongyang has always been angered by the exercises, saying they are rehearsals for an invasion. A spokesperson for the foreign ministry said the US-Japan-South Korea military cooperation is turning into a nuclear alliance, and that Pyongyang would respond to a new level of threat with a new level of deterrent. The condemnation came days after South Korea, the US, and Japan detected the second North Korean missile test in days, part of a series of ballistic missile tests banned by the United Nations.
During a joint press conference last week, US and South Korean military leaders announced the Ulchi Freedom Shield drills and said the event would be similar in scale to previous years. They also noted North Korea’s deployment of troops to aid Russia’s war against Ukraine. US military spokesperson Ryan Donald said “our training accounts for that threat,” referring to North Korean soldiers returning from the battlefield. Last week, South Korea’s president proposed talks with its northern neighbour on officially ending the war between the two, which is technically still active since an armistice was signed in 1953.