Trump says U.S. will scale back on South Korea military drills, citing his ‘very good relationship’ with Kim Jong Un
President Donald Trump said on Sunday, August 16, that he had directed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to “substantially reduce” joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises, pointing to his “very good relationship” with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
The announcement came just hours before the annual drills, known as Ulchi Freedom Shield, were set to begin, raising questions about the future of the decades-old military alliance between the two countries.
Trump’s announcement
Trump made the announcement in a post on Truth Social, writing 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 argued that the drills were costly to the U.S. and sent a message he described as “totally inappropriate and hostile” toward North Korea, a country he said had been “unthreatening and respectful” during his time in office.
Trump also said it was too late to cancel the exercises outright, so he instead instructed Hegseth, whom he referred to by the title “Secretary of War,” to cut back their scope.
Beyond his relationship with the North Korean dictator, Trump pointed to South Korea’s decision not to join the U.S. military effort against Iran as another factor behind his thinking.
“I recently asked the President of South Korea if they would like to join us in the Denuclearization of the Islamic Republic of Iran and they said, “No thanks!” he added.
South Korea’s response
South Korea’s government did not signal any interruption to its side of the exercises. The country’s defense ministry said on Monday that Ulchi Freedom Shield, which is scheduled to run through August 27, was “proceeding as planned.”
Separately, the office of South Korean President, Lee Jae Myung, said in a statement that Washington and Seoul had “maintained close coordination” on joint training and would continue to do so going forward.
South Korea’s foreign ministry also addressed Trump’s comments about Kim directly, saying it hoped that “friendly relations between the North Korean and U.S. leaders” would lead to meaningful talks between Washington and Pyongyang and help advance peace on the Korean Peninsula.
North Korea remains quiet
Kim has not publicly responded to Trump’s announcement as of yet. Instead, North Korean state media reported that Kim used the weekend to reaffirm his country’s deepening ties with Russia, sending a message to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
North Korea has supplied soldiers and missiles to support Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
However, the country did address the drills, as the North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesperson previously said, “The U.S. announced that the forthcoming exercises are quite different from the ones of the past five years and intended to master the ability of fighting a war on the basis of the new aspects of modern warfare,”.
“It is our consistent principle of ensuring security to respond to a new level of a threat with a new level of a deterrent,” they added.
A long-running alliance dynamic
The joint exercises between the U.S. and South Korea have been held annually for decades as a show of military readiness against North Korea, which has consistently viewed them as provocation and preparation for invasion.
Scaling back the drills is not, however, new. In 2019, following nuclear talks between Trump and Kim in Hanoi that ended without an agreement, the U.S. and South Korea suspended two large-scale exercises known as Key Resolve and Foal Eagle, replacing them with smaller, mission-specific training.
Despite the country’s status as a longtime U.S. adversary, Trump has repeatedly spoken warmly of Kim.