Trump says US will reduce joint military exercises with key ally South Korea

By Aileen Graef and Gawon Bae, CNN

Washington DC and Seoul, South Korea (CNN) — President Donald Trump announced Sunday that the United States would reduce military exercises with key regional ally South Korea, just hours before that were due to get underway, citing his positive relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Seoul’s lack of assistance with Iran.

“Based on my very good relationship with Kim Jong Un, of North Korea, I am not happy with the fact that the United States has, long ago, agreed to participate in Joint Military Exercises with South Korea,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

“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, to a Country that, as long as Donald J. Trump has been President, has been unthreatening and respectful,”

South Korea has been a close American ally for over 70 years and the two nations have a mutual defense treaty, primarily designed to protect it from North Korea –– a burgeoning military power that now posses nuclear warheads and intercontinental ballistic missiles.

The US and South Korea frequently hold joint military drills and South Korea hosts the largest US military installation overseas, Camp Humphreys –– home to tens of thousands of American service members, their families and Korean nationals.

Ulchi Freedom Shield, the annual joint exercises, was set to begin Monday and run for 10 days. They were designed to adapt to North Korea’s evolving capabilities and would incorporate training to counter drones, GPS disruption and cyberattacks, Reuters reported last week, citing a joint statement.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff told CNN that the drills started on Monday as scheduled. What is less clear currently is whether the exercises have been suddenly pared down or not in light of Trump’s sudden announcement.

The drills are usually a significant joint exercise involving thousands of troops and major equipment. At least 18,000 South Korean troops were set to take part in exercises according to local authorities.

North Korea has long criticized joint US-South Korea exercises, with its foreign ministry last week calling the planned drills “a rehearsal for an aggressive war” and a “grave threat” to its security.

South Korea’s presidential Blue House said it was reviewing Trump’s comments, adding that it would continue working with the US on details related to the drills and the “maintenance of firm combined defense posture.”

Last year, Trump told South Korean President Lee Jae Myung that he was willing to meet Kim Jong Un again to discuss peace on the Korean Peninsula, in a meeting at the White House.

“The South Korean government hopes that the friendly relations between the leaders of North Korea and the US would lead to meaningful talks between the two countries,” the Blue House said Monday.

Lee has previously also called for talks between the Koreas, who are technically still at war, to replace the armistice struck in 1953 with a formal peace treaty.

In his social media post, Trump went on to raise his request for South Korea to help with the US war against Iran.

“While somewhat unrelated (?), 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!’” Trump wrote.

The US president has frequently lashed out at allies that have not aided in the war.

South Korea said on Monday it was “in close communications with the US on substantial and military ways to contribute” to the freedom of passage in the Strait of Hormuz, and had been participating in international discussions.

North Korea’s Kim has said the United States’ war with Iran proves his country made the right decision to keep its nuclear weapons after denuclearization talks with the US failed during Trump’s first term. In a speech to North Korea’s Supreme People’s Assembly published in March, Kim accused Washington of “acts of state sponsored terrorism and aggression,” but did not mention Iran by name.

Kim has yet to comment on Trump’s plan to scale back the drills. Over the weekend, he reaffirmed Pyongyang’s deepening ties with Russia in a message to President Vladimir Putin, marking North Korea’s independence from Japanese rule, state media reported. North Korea has provided soldiers and missiles to aide in Moscow’s war on Ukraine.

On Monday, North Korea’s state-run KNCA news outlet published pictures of Kim and his daughter, believed to be named Kim Ju Ae and who is increasingly viewed as a likely successor, watching a circus performance together.

Trump and Kim’s relationship

Trump has had a warm relationship with Kim despite North Korea being a longtime adversary of the United States. Earlier this weekend, Trump posted a picture of him and Kim, with the caption: “Despite the unfriendly look on this particular picture, there are many where we’re smiling, Kim Jong Un and I get along GREAT!”

During Trump’s first term, the United States and South Korea also scaled back joint operations as part of an effort to ease tensions with North Korea.

The president said in 2018 that it was “inappropriate to have war games” on the Korean Peninsula as the US was engaging in nuclear negotiations with North Korea.

In March 2019 — after a Trump-Kim summit in Hanoi that failed to reach an agreement — the United States and South Korea announced that annual large-scale exercises, which had been a common feature of the defense relationship between the two militaries, would be reconfigured into smaller exercises.

As he did on Sunday, Trump in 2019 also cited the cost to the United States. “The reason I do not want military drills with South Korea is to save hundreds of millions of dollars for the U.S. for which we are not reimbursed,” he posted at the time.

After meeting Kim several times during his first term, Trump has referenced their “good relationship” since returning to office. On his home way from China in May, for example, the president said he had been in communication with the North Korean leader but wouldn’t say how many talks they’d had.

This story has been updated with additional information.

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CNN’s Brad Lendon, Will Ripley and Alejandra Jaramillo contributed to this report.