Joint military exercises underway between the United States and South Korea are being cut short, both countries said, after President Donald Trump ordered that they be reduced and cited his “very good” relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The surprise announcement drew suggestions that Trump may want to revive his bid to strike a grand bargain with Kim over his isolated regime’s nuclear arsenal. Trump is open to a new meeting with Kim at the “appropriate time,” a White House official told NBC News, but no date has been set and no formal planning has started on a potential visit.
The president is expected to travel to Asia this fall to attend several summits, including the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation gathering in Shenzhen, China, in November, but it’s unclear whether any possible meeting would be set up around that timeframe. However, Kim’s powerful sister Kim Yo Jong dampened hopes for a resumption of diplomacy between Trump and her brother, saying she was not aware of any communication between the two nations in comments carried by state media. Regarding the curtailment of the U.S.-South Korea drills, “we think it’s not worth making comments on that and we have no interest in it,” she said.
The Wall Street Journal was first to report the possible Kim meeting. After Trump’s public order to scale back the annual U.S.-South Korea drills, known as Ulchi Freedom Shield, the exercises will now end Aug. 21 rather than Aug. 27 as originally scheduled, a Defense Department official said. Trump orders reduction of joint exercises with South Korea The South Korean National Defense Ministry also said the two countries “have agreed, at the request of the U.S. side, to make some adjustments to the duration and scale of the exercise.” Some of the combined field training exercises will be conducted on a reduced scale, the ministry said in a statement, adding that the U.S. and South Korea “are currently consulting on the specific details.” “Going forward, the ROK and the United States will discuss and implement various measures to achieve the objectives of the UFS exercise and maintain a robust combined defense posture,” the ministry said, using an abbreviation for South Korea’s formal name, the Republic of Korea.
The ministry declined to comment on a reported meeting Tuesday between Gen. Xavier Brunson, the commander of U.S. Forces Korea, and South Korean Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-back.
The surprise comments by Trump, which he made on social media hours before the exercises began Monday, have unsettled South Korea, which relies heavily on the U.S. for its security, as well as other U.S. allies in the region facing a growing threat from nuclear-armed North Korea. South Korean Foreign Affairs Minister Cho Hyun said Ahn had been “in close consultation with the U.S. side” since Trump’s social media post. He told lawmakers Wednesday that “neither our government nor officials in the U.S. government had any prior knowledge” of Trump’s order to scale back the drills.
Forces Korea, the Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise with South Korea, which hosts 28,000 American troops, aims to build understanding between the two militaries to ensure their “ability to fortify the combined defense posture” and enhance their response to “a spectrum of security threats.” Foremost among those threats is North Korea, which in recent years has advanced its missile and nuclear capabilities and developed a close security relationship with Russia. Though the U.S. and South Korea say their drills are defensive in nature, North Korea routinely criticizes them as a rehearsal for invasion and often test-fires weapons in protest. In his post Sunday, Trump said the exercises sent a “totally inappropriate and hostile” message to North Korea, which he said had been “unthreatening and respectful” during his time in office.
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