President Donald Trump has long touted his personal relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Now that relationship is beginning to affect the military architecture that has underpinned security in Northeast Asia for decades. As The Japan Times reported this week, Trump said he was scaling back what he called “costly” and “inappropriate” joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises, prompting speculation that he hopes to reopen direct talks with Kim.
Citing his “very good relationship” with the North Korean strongman, Trump said he was “not happy” that Washington had agreed to participate in the exercises, which he described as sending an “inappropriate and hostile” signal to Pyongyang. For Japan, those words carry consequences well beyond the Korean Peninsula. Regular U.S.-South Korean exercises are not simply displays of military power.
They are an important measure of readiness and a visible demonstration of Washington’s commitment to its Asian allies. Scaling them back on the basis of a president’s personal relationship with Kim raises a larger question for Tokyo: How much can Japan continue to rely on a regional security architecture vulnerable to sudden changes in Washington?
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