Trump says US to ‘substantially reduce’ military drills with South Korea

What the report says

US President Donald Trump said he wants the Pentagon to “substantially reduce” joint military exercises with South Korea, according to Al Jazeera’s report on Sunday. Trump said he was unhappy with the drills because of his “very good relationship” with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, and he described the exercises as costly and unnecessarily hostile toward Pyongyang.

Al Jazeera reported that the annual Ulchi Freedom Shield drills were due to begin on Monday and were scheduled to run for 11 days, with about 18,000 South Korean troops involved. The South Korean Defense Ministry said the exercises would go ahead as planned despite Trump’s statement. The drills are a long-running part of US-South Korea military cooperation and are intended to prepare for defense against North Korea.

The report said North Korea regularly condemns the exercises as invasion rehearsals. Pyongyang criticized the latest drills last week and said growing US-Japan-South Korea military coordination was becoming a nuclear alliance. Trump also referenced his previous meetings with Kim and repeated that the two leaders had a strong relationship.

The move matters because it touches a sensitive security issue on the Korean Peninsula and could affect allied military readiness as well as regional diplomacy. Al Jazeera also noted this is not the first time Trump has called the drills expensive or provocative, having raised similar objections after his 2018 summit with Kim.