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- The announcement came hours before the Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises were due to begin, with about 18,000 South Korean personnel expected to participate.
- South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the exercises began as planned on Monday, while the White House gave no immediate details on scaling them back.
- Trump said the drills sent an “inappropriate and hostile” message to Pyongyang and cited his “very good relationship” with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
- The move comes amid rising Korean Peninsula tensions, including two North Korean ballistic missile launches since 6 August.
US President Donald Trump has ordered the Pentagon to substantially reduce joint military exercises with South Korea, arguing that the drills are costly and send an unnecessarily hostile signal to North Korea.
The announcement came just hours before the annual Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises were due to begin on Monday. Around 18,000 South Korean military personnel are expected to take part in the drills, which are scheduled to continue until 27 August.
Writing on Truth Social on Sunday, Trump said he was “not happy” that the United States had agreed to participate and pointed to what he described as his “very good relationship” with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Trump said the exercises were expensive and sent an “inappropriate and hostile” message to Pyongyang, which he described as having been “unthreatening and respectful” during his presidency.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff confirmed that the exercises began as planned on Monday but declined to comment on Trump’s remarks. The Pentagon referred questions to the White House, which did not immediately provide details on how the exercises would be scaled back.
Long-running tensions over military drills
The US and South Korea are longstanding defence allies, with around 28,500 American troops stationed in the country. Trump has repeatedly called on Seoul to contribute more towards the cost of the US military presence and has previously sought to reduce large-scale joint exercises.
North Korea, which remains technically at war with South Korea following the 1950-53 Korean War, routinely condemns the exercises as preparations for an invasion.
Tensions on the Korean Peninsula have risen in recent weeks. North Korea has carried out two ballistic missile launches since 6 August, including one from its eastern coast towards the Sea of Japan.
Jenny Town, head of the 38 North programme at the Stimson Center, said Trump’s decision could be an attempt to create an opening for renewed diplomacy with Pyongyang, although she questioned whether the manner in which it was announced would have much impact on North Korea.
Trump and Kim have had a turbulent relationship. After exchanging threats during Trump’s first term, the two leaders held three high-profile meetings. Trump later spoke warmly about their personal relationship, but the talks failed to produce significant changes to North Korea’s nuclear weapons or ballistic missile programmes.
Iran also factors into Trump’s decision
Trump also linked his dissatisfaction with Seoul to South Korea’s refusal to participate in US military action against Iran.
He said he had recently asked South Korean President Lee Jae Myung whether Seoul would join US efforts relating to the denuclearisation of Iran, but the South Korean government declined.
The remarks come amid wider differences between Washington and Seoul over defence, trade and economic policy.
The two countries reached a trade agreement last year under which the US lowered tariffs on South Korean cars in exchange for Seoul committing to invest $350 billion. South Korea has yet to announce full details of the investment plan.
Exercises increasingly rely on simulations
It remains unclear what Trump’s order will mean for the ongoing Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises.
In recent years, the drills have increasingly moved away from large live-fire exercises and towards computer simulations involving scenarios such as missile attacks and cyber warfare.
Victor Cha, head of the Korea programme at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, suggested Trump may also be seeking to draw North Korea away from its increasingly close relationship with Russia.
North Korean troops have fought alongside Russian forces in Ukraine, while Kyiv said last week that North Korean-made missiles had been used in a Russian ballistic missile attack on a steel plant in Zaporizhzhia.
US military officials have warned that North Korean forces have gained valuable battlefield experience through their involvement in the war. A senior US Northern Command official also said last week that Pyongyang had successfully tested intercontinental ballistic missiles with sufficient range to potentially deliver a nuclear payload anywhere in North America.
Despite the latest disagreement, Washington and Seoul remain key military allies in East Asia. The extent to which Trump’s order will alter their joint defence posture, or open the door to renewed diplomacy with Pyongyang, remains unclear.
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Source: Costas Pitas, David Lawder, Heejin Kim – Reuters
