Donald Trump has called on the US military to “substantially reduce” the number of joint military exercises with South Korea because of his “very good relationship” with Kim Jong-Un.
Hours before the military drills were set to begin, the President said he was “not happy” with the large-scale military exercises which were agreed to “long ago”.
The annual Ulchi Freedom Shield (UFS) exercise are scheduled from August 17 to 27, with about 18,000 South Korean military personnel participating.
“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,” the President wrote on Truth Social.
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Saying it was “too late to cancel”, he said Secretary of War Pete Hegseth had been instructed to “substantially reduce” the joint military exercises.
Mr Trump also suggested the planned cutback in military drills was connected to the Iran war.
The President said: “While somewhat unrelated (?), I recently asked the President of South Korea if they would like to join us in the denuclearisation of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and they said, ‘No thanks!’.”
South Korea and the US have conducted joint military exercises for over 70 years, but in recent years have shifted away from live-firing exercises to computer-simulated missile and cyberattacks.
This is not the first time the President has sought to end the long-lasting military relationship.
During his first term, Mr Trump said it was “inappropriate to have war games” with South Korea as the US was engaged in nuclear negotiations with North Korea.
And after a summit with Kim in 2019, the President said the annual large-scale exercises would be reorganised into smaller drills.
“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 said at the time.
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Mr Trump has previously called Kim “little rocket man” and threatened “fire and fury”.
But the pair have also held several summits and built a seemingly close relationship.
“He wrote me beautiful letters and they’re great letters. We fell in love,” he told supporters at a campaign rally in 2018.
This year’s event includes exercises to counter drones, GPS disruption and cyberattacks to adapt to North Korea’s evolving capabilities, according to US officials.
Colonel Ryan Donald, director of public affairs for the Combined Forces Command, United Nations Command and US Forces Korea said the drills reflected the changing nature of war after conflicts including Ukraine – where North Korean troops have been deployed.
“DPRK soldiers have deployed and fought in Ukraine, and they’ve taken those lessons they’ve learned there and brought them back to North Korea,” he told Reuters.
Ukraine said last week that North Korean manufactured missiles were used in a Russian ballistic missile attack on a steel plant in Zaporizhzhia which killed seven.
It remains unclear how exactly the Ulchi Freedom Shield drills could be cut back, but South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff confirmed the drills started on Monday.
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