Trump says US will scale back military drills with South Korea

What the report says

President Donald Trump said the United States will substantially reduce joint military exercises with South Korea, a move he linked to his relationship with North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un, and to his view that the drills are costly and send a hostile signal. The BBC reported that Trump made the comments on Truth Social on Sunday, just as annual US-South Korea exercises were due to begin on Monday.

According to the report, Trump also referred to South Korea declining a request to join the US in what he described as the denuclearisation of Iran. The decision follows fresh North Korean ballistic missile tests this month, which are banned by the United Nations, and comes amid continued tension on the Korean peninsula.

The BBC said US and South Korean military leaders had only recently announced Ulchi Freedom Shield, an 11-day exercise expected to be similar in size to previous years, with about 18,000 South Korean troops involved. Officials also discussed North Korea’s deployment of troops to support Russia’s war in Ukraine, while North Korea’s foreign ministry separately criticized the drills and said it rejects threats through its right to self-defence.

More broadly, the move reflects Trump’s longstanding emphasis on personal diplomacy with Kim, which previously led him to become the first sitting US president to enter North Korea during his first term.