President Donald Trump has ordered the Pentagon to “substantially” scale back military drills with South Korea, citing his “very good relationship” with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his disappointment over Seoul not supporting the United States in its war on Iran.
In a social media post on Sunday, Trump said the military exercises, which were due to start on Monday, are costly and “send a signal that is totally inappropriate and hostile” to North Korea, which he said “has been unthreatening and respectful” while Trump has been in the White House.
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“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 Truth Social, in advance of the annual August ۱۷-۲۷ military drill.
He added that it was now too late to cancel the drills, so he had ordered Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to “substantially reduce” them.
Noting Seoul’s stance on the US-Israel war on Iran, the US president said, “I recently asked the President of South Korea if they would like to join us in the Denuclearization of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and they said, ‘No thanks!’”
So how significant is Washington’s scaling down of military exercises with Seoul? And will it improve US-North Korea ties?
Here’s what we know:
What are the military drills between the US and South Korea?
The Ulchi Freedom Shield (UFS) drills are annual military exercises between Washington and Seoul that began in ۱۹۷۶ and mainly focus on defending South Korea from North Korea.
According to the website of the US military forces in South Korea, the exercises are a regular summer fixture for them and Seoul’s armed forces, featuring “live, virtual, constructive and field-based training, engaging personnel from the various military services”.
In the past, Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada, Colombia, Denmark, the Netherlands and New Zealand have also joined the drills.
The ۱۱-day drill in South Korea will involve ۱۸,۰۰۰ Korean soldiers and ۲۸,۵۰۰ US personnel stationed in the region.
It comes amid thousands of North Korean soldiers participating in Russia’s war on Ukraine, and the spectre of those battle-hardened troops has heightened concerns in South Korea.
Who is against the drills?
While Washington and Seoul say the drills are defensive in nature, sections of South Korea also protest against the war games every year. Earlier this month, members of Solidarity for Peace, Sovereignty and Reunification, a grassroots South Korean organisation, staged a protest outside the US Embassy in Seoul against the UFS. They argue that the drills could escalate regional military tensions and risk a nuclear war. North Korea has nuclear weapons, while the US has traditionally guaranteed South Korea nuclear security.
Every year, North Korea has also opposed the drills by testing its own missile technology at the time of the drills or launching ballistic missiles towards South Korea.
Last week, North Korea denounced the latest drills as a provocation that heightens tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
On August ۱۲, North Korea launched a ballistic missile towards the Sea of Japan, according to Seoul and Tokyo, marking the second such test from Pyongyang in less than a week.
Then on Friday, a spokesperson for North Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs claimed that the US-Japan-South Korea military cooperation is turning into a nuclear alliance, and Pyongyang will respond to a new level of threat with a new level of deterrent.
Why has Trump asked to scale down the drills?
Soon after North Korea’s Foreign Ministry commented on this year’s drills, Trump posted a photo of himself standing next to Kim and wrote that the two leaders got along great, “despite the unfriendly look on this particular picture”.
During his first term, Trump met Kim three times.
But this is not the first time the US president has opposed the drills. During his first term as president, after he met Kim at a ۲۰۱۸ summit in Singapore, he called the military drills “expensive” and “provocative“. After that meeting, Trump had also said he wanted to scale down US troops on the Korean Peninsula at some point in the future.
Analysts say Trump wanting to scale back from this year’s drills is linked to the ongoing war on Iran.
“US President Trump does seem to have been genuinely affronted by the fact that America’s allies and partners did not jump to assist the United States in the conflict with Iran. So his aside on that matter should not be taken lightly,” Christopher Green, the International Crisis Group’s senior consultant on the Korean Peninsula, told Al Jazeera.
According to Trump, South Korea has rejected Washington’s proposal of joining the US in “the denuclearization of the Islamic Republic of Iran”.
Seoul has not yet responded to this claim.
What has South Korea said?
Seoul has said the military drills with Washington will go ahead as planned.
On Monday, after Trump’s announcement on the drills, the country’s Yonhap news agency reported that South Korea’s presidential office expects the friendship between the leaders of North Korea and the US to help lead to bilateral talks on peace on the Korean Peninsula.
“The government takes note of President Trump’s social media message,” the presidential office spokesperson said in Seoul.
“We expect friendly relations between the North Korean and US leaders to lead to meaningful North Korea-US talks and the start of discussions aimed at advancing peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula,” the spokesperson added.
Last week, South Korean President Lee Jae Myung also proposed talks with North Korea to formally end the Korean War and replace their armistice with a peace regime, saying dialogue could also curb Pyongyang’s advancing nuclear programme.
Is Trump’s announcement significant?
Trump’s announcement comes amid the US-Israel war on Iran, just days after North Korea launched a ballistic missile towards the Sea of Japan.
Kim has been significantly beefing up ties with Moscow, and entered a three-way partnership with Russia and China in Beijing in ۲۰۲۵.
Even as Pyongyang has beefed up its military arsenal and tried to gain partners, Trump has repeatedly berated the US’s NATO allies for not spending enough on defence and not backing its war on Iran.
Green noted that Trump’s announcement on the military drills could also be a signal he is trying to send to North Korea.
“It does seem probable that he would like to reinitiate dialogue as a way of reviving his fortunes on the international stage,” he said.
“I don’t think Kim Jong Un is currently terribly interested in that. But that remains to be seen as events proceed,” he added.
The US does not have diplomatic relations with North Korea but has a policy to “ensure peace and prosperity on the Korean Peninsula, including through the pursuit of complete denuclearization”, according to the US Department of State.
In ۲۰۱۹, during his first term, Trump had sought a guarantee from Kim that Pyongyang would stop testing its missiles and nuclear weapons. In return, North Korea demanded the lifting of the economic sanctions, which ultimately became the sticking point in the talks.
Their talks in the Vietnamese capital, Hanoi, collapsed with Trump saying he could not lift the sanctions entirely. Since then, the two leaders have not met.
Green said there might be some dialogue between the US and North Korea behind the scenes.
“This could mean that talks on the public stage are about to resume. But I’m not sure that is the case. As we know with President Trump, the things he posts on Truth Social are not always well timed or especially strategic or effective,” he said.
“It may well be that he has done this in a fit of pique, when frustrated by South Korea,” he added.
