President Donald Trump ordered the Pentagon to substantially reduce joint military exercises with South Korea, hours before the two allies launched their largest annual drills of the summer.
Trump announced the decision Sunday in a post on Truth Social, saying he had instructed Secretary of War Pete Hegseth to scale the exercises back. He called them costly and said they send a signal that is hostile toward North Korea, which he described as respectful during his time in office. He also pointed to his relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and said it was too late to cancel the drills outright.
Trump tied the move to Seoul's refusal to join the U.S. war against Iran, NBC News reported.
The exercise, known as Ulchi Freedom Shield, began Monday as scheduled and was set to run through Aug. 27 with about 18,000 South Korean troops, according to Al Jazeera. The U.S. military has described the drills as defensive and as a reaffirmation of the alliance. Planned events included precision targeting drills, a river crossing and the distribution of prepositioned equipment, NPR reported.
South Korea's Defense Ministry said Monday that the exercise was proceeding as planned. The office of President Lee Jae Myung said the two governments had kept close coordination on joint training and would continue to do so, adding that Seoul hopes friendly ties between Trump and Kim lead to renewed talks with Pyongyang.
The Pentagon gave no public explanation of what would be cut, leaving the practical effect unclear for two days. On Wednesday, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said the drills would be scaled down significantly and would end almost a week early, UPI reported.
The cut affects an exercise with unusual institutional weight. The allies had planned to use it to assess capabilities tied to the transfer of wartime operational control to South Korean command, a process Washington has long encouraged.
Reaction in the region was uneasy. Retired Lt. Gen. Chun In-bum, a former commander of South Korea's Special Warfare Command, told NBC News that North Korea and China would be the parties most pleased by the decision. Japan said Tuesday that security cooperation with the United States and South Korea remains critical to regional stability, CBS News reported.
North Korea has not publicly answered Trump's overture. State media criticized the exercise this week as a provocation, according to UPI.
Trump took a similar step in his first term. After his 2018 summit with Kim in Singapore, the Pentagon suspended that year's Ulchi Freedom Guardian exercise, and several later drills were reduced in scale.