US President Donald Trump has ordered the Pentagon to substantially reduce joint military exercises with South Korea, citing the cost of the drills and Seoul’s refusal to participate in US actions against Iran.
Trump made the announcement on Sunday, hours before the annual Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises were due to begin, saying he was “not happy” that the US had agreed to participate.
In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump also pointed to his “very good relationship” with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, arguing that the exercises send an inappropriate and hostile signal to Pyongyang.
“These exercises are not only costly… 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,” Trump wrote.
The annual exercises are scheduled to run until August 27, with about 18,000 South Korean military personnel taking part.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the drills began on Monday as scheduled, while the presidential Blue House said it was reviewing Trump’s remarks.
The Blue House said Seoul hoped Trump’s relationship with Kim could help create an opportunity for meaningful dialogue and advance peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula.
It added that the US and South Korea would continue coordinating their combined defence posture and military exercises.
Trump has repeatedly sought to reduce or end US-South Korean military exercises, while also pressing Seoul to contribute more towards the cost of maintaining about 28,500 American troops in South Korea.
North Korea, which remains technically at war with South Korea, routinely condemns the joint exercises as rehearsals for an invasion.
Pyongyang has also continued its missile activity, firing a ballistic missile from its eastern coast towards the Sea of Japan last week, days after another short-range ballistic missile launch.
Jenny Town, head of the Stimson Center’s 38 North programme, said Trump’s decision could be part of a broader attempt to create a diplomatic opening with Pyongyang.
However, she said the “haphazard nature” of the move was unlikely to make much of an impression in North Korea.
It remains unclear how the exercises would be reduced, although the drills have increasingly shifted away from large-scale live-fire operations towards computer-simulated missile and cyberattack scenarios.
Victor Cha, head of the Korea programme at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said Trump could also be seeking greater influence over North Korea as Pyongyang deepens its military relationship with Russia.
“The other way to look at this is that Trump wants to engage Kim as a way to impede the Russia-NK ties,” Cha said.
US officials have said North Korean troops deployed alongside Russian forces in Ukraine have gained battlefield experience from the conflict.
Ukraine also said last week that North Korean-made missiles were used in a Russian ballistic missile attack on a steel plant in Zaporizhzhia.
Meanwhile, Lieutenant General Joseph Jarrard, a senior US Northern Command official, warned last week that North Korea had successfully tested intercontinental ballistic missiles with sufficient range to deliver a nuclear payload anywhere in North America.
Trump’s relationship with Kim has fluctuated sharply over the years.
The US president once threatened North Korea with “fire and fury” and mocked Kim as “little rocket man”, before later holding three summits with the North Korean leader.
Trump subsequently declared that the two had “fell in love” after exchanging letters, although their diplomatic efforts failed to produce an agreement to halt North Korea’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programmes.
Trump’s latest move also comes amid wider tensions between Washington and Seoul over defence spending and economic commitments.
While Trump has repeatedly demanded that South Korea shoulder a greater share of defence costs, a senior US official earlier this year described Seoul as a “model ally” committed to increasing defence spending in line with US regional strategy.
A former Trump administration official told Reuters that Trump was frustrated with what he described as the South Korean government’s reluctance to address broader economic concerns.
The two countries signed a trade agreement last year under which South Korea committed to invest $350 billion in the US in exchange for lower US tariffs on South Korean automobiles.
However, Seoul has yet to announce detailed plans for the investment.
The allies are also embroiled in a dispute involving US-listed e-commerce company Coupang, which is being investigated by South Korean authorities over a major data breach.
Trump’s call to reduce military exercises therefore adds a new layer to already complex security, diplomatic and economic tensions between Washington and Seoul.
Boluwatife Enome
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