US President Donald Trump said he was “not happy” about US participation in joint military exercises with close ally South Korea and is scaling back the drills aimed at deterring rival North Korea that start on Monday (Aug 16).
Trump’s comments on Sunday, ahead of the annual Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise in South Korea, underscored his willingness to challenge long-standing military alliances, as he harked back to his negotiations with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during his first term that failed in the goal of tackling its nuclear program.
“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 his Truth Social platform.
“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,” he continued.
Trump added that it was too late to cancel the drills so he had ordered Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to “substantially reduce” them.
The exercise, which runs for 11 days, is a regular summer fixture for South Korea’s armed forces and their US allies, designed to steel them for defence against the nuclear-armed North.
South Korea’s defence ministry said the joint drills would “proceed as previously notified and scheduled” when asked about Trump’s post.
Pyongyang has always been angered by the drills, decrying them as dress rehearsals for an invasion.
The US stations about 28,500 troops in South Korea to bolster the country’s defences against military threats from Pyongyang. That’s a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War that ended with an armistice rather than a peace treaty.
American forces typically hold regular military drills with their South Korean counterparts.
Trump has proved willing to challenge long-standing alliances, as he has done with NATO, criticising Western partners for refusing to support his war against Iran, now in its sixth month and without progress on reaching a negotiated settlement.
In Sunday’s post, Trump also took aim at South Korea on that count, writing: “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!'”
