WASHINGTON — President Trump ordered the Pentagon on Sunday to scale back planned joint military exercises with South Korea, saying Seoul declined to help denuclearize Iran and citing his good relationship with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un.
Trump said in a social media post that the exercises set to begin this week are not only costly but “send a signal that is totally inappropriate and hostile” to North Korea, which he said “has been unthreatening and respectful” during his current term in the White House.
“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 wrote. The president added that he recently asked South Korea’s president to join the U.S. in its efforts to denuclearize Iran, “and they said, ‘No thanks!’”
The move is the latest example of the president appearing to side against an ally in favor of an authoritarian leader that previous administrations have cast as an adversary. Trump and others in his administration also have railed against North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies over what they says is lack of support for his war against Iran, though he launched the war alongside Israel without consulting alliance members. They remain focused on confronting an increasingly aggressive Russia in the Baltic region.
It is also a sharp turnaround from how his administration has viewed South Korea in recent months.
In May, Hegseth praised the longtime ally during a meeting at the Pentagon for its “commitment to increase defense spending” and its “leadership in assuming primary responsibility for the security of the Korean Peninsula.”
“It demonstrates alliance burden-sharing that all of America’s partners would do well to follow,” the Defense secretary added.
What the U.S. military says about the joint exercises
The 11 days of exercises involving 18,000 South Korean soldiers were designed to beef up readiness against North Korean threats.
The U.S. military has said the summertime Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises reinforce “the role of the alliance as the linchpin for regional peace and security” and reaffirm “the ironclad commitment between the United States and the Republic of Korea to defend their homelands.”
U.S. and South Korean forces were expected to practice joint operations in complex scenarios, including a live-fire exercise to test joint precision targeting and maneuver, a wet gap crossing and distribution of prepositioned military equipment, according to the U.S. military.
The joint training was set to start days after North Korea resumed ballistic missile testing activities that are banned by the United Nations.
Trump’s decision was sharply criticized by Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona, a former Navy pilot, who said that “hollowing out these joint exercises is shortsighted and a mistake” in a social media post just hours after the president’s post. Earlier this month, South Korea, the U.S. and Japan detected the launch of a short-range ballistic missile from North Korea in what was the North’s first ballistic weapons testing activity since late June. The missile landed in the waters off North Korea’s east coast.
North Korea threatens strong response
North Korea has been pushing hard to enlarge its nuclear and missile arsenals since Kim’s high-stakes diplomacy with Trump collapsed in 2019. Experts say Kim probably believes a bigger weapons arsenal would increase his chances for wresting more concessions from the U.S. in future negotiations.
North Korea on Friday threatened unspecified stern steps against the U.S. and South Korea, describing their military drills as “a rehearsal for an aggressive war” that are triggering greater instability in the region.
The warning was typical of the harsh rhetoric that North Korea often deploys ahead of major U.S.-South Korean military exercises. Experts say North Korea has often used its rivals’ drills as a pretext to ramp up testing activities to expand its weapons arsenals and promote public support for the reclusive North Korean leader.
Trump met with Kim three times during his first term to discuss the country’s nuclear program, most recently in 2019. Since returning to office, Trump has expressed interest in continuing those discussions.
Trump’s announcement came a day after he posted a photo of himself standing next to Kim, writing that the two leaders get along great “despite the unfriendly look on this particular picture.”
This is not the first time that Trump has sought to end the exercises. During his first term he also issued a surprise announcement that called the war games “provocative.”
“We will be stopping the war games, which will save us a tremendous amount of money, unless and until we see the future negotiation is not going along like it should,” Trump told reporters after his 2018 meeting with Kim in Singapore.
Toropin and Richer write for the Associated Press.
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