Trump Orders Cutback of US-South Korea Military Drills

President Donald Trump announced on Sunday that the United States will “substantially reduce” its annual joint military exercises with South Korea. Writing on Truth Social, he cited his “very good relationship” with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and took aim at Seoul for refusing to join US-led sanctions over Iran.

The announcement came hours before the start of Ulchi Freedom Shield, an 11-day exercise involving around 18,000 South Korean troops and approximately 28,500 American military personnel. Trump acknowledged it was “too late to cancel” the drills outright.

“These exercises are not only costly, with much of these costs paid for by the United States of America (as usual!), but send a signal that is totally inappropriate and hostile,” Trump wrote. He also said South Korea had declined when he asked it to support the “denuclearisation of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

South Korea responded by saying the exercises would proceed “as scheduled.” North Korea, which last week conducted ballistic missile tests banned by the UN, has not yet commented. Pyongyang’s foreign ministry had earlier described the annual drills as “a rehearsal for an aggressive war.”

Less than a day before the post, Trump published an old photograph of himself and Kim from 2019, calling them “great friends.” Trump made a similar move in his first term, suspending the exercises entirely in 2018 during denuclearisation talks with Kim, calling the drills “provocative” and expensive “war games.”