Trump orders reduction in U.S.-South Korea military exercises
President Trump said he has ordered a substantial reduction in joint military exercises with South Korea ahead of the start of the allies’ annual drills.
Trump announced the decision Sunday, one day before the United States and South Korea are scheduled to begin Ulchi Freedom Shield, an 11-day exercise that is due to run through Aug. 27.
“Based on my very good relationship with Kim Jong Un, of North Korea, I am not happy with the fact that the United States has, long ago, agreed to participate in Joint Military Exercises with South Korea,” Trump wrote in a social media post.
“These exercises are not only costly, with much of these costs paid for by the United States of America, but send a signal that is totally inappropriate and hostile to a country that, as long as Donald J. Trump has been president, has been unthreatening and respectful,” he said.
“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 added.
About 18,000 South Korean troops had been expected to participate in Ulchi Freedom Shield, which includes command-post and field training. North Korea routinely condemns the drills as rehearsals for an invasion.
Trump’s announcement came a day after he posted a 2019 photograph of himself with Kim at the Demilitarized Zone, writing: “Despite the unfriendly look on this particular picture, there are many where we’re smiling. Kim Jong Un and I get along GREAT!”
On Sunday’s post, Trump said that he had asked South Korea’s president whether the country wanted to join the United States in the denuclearization of Iran, but was told: “No thanks!”
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Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
