Citing Costs, Tensions With North Korea and South Korea’s Refusal to Join Iran Denuclearization Efforts, Trump Directs Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to Reduce the Scope of the Drills
President Donald Trump ordered the Pentagon on Aug. 16 to scale back joint military exercises with South Korea.
“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 in a Truth Social post on Sunday.
Trump highlighted the expense of the exercises and argued that they sent the wrong signal to North Korea.
“These exercises are not only costly, with much of these costs paid for by the United States of America (as usual!), but send a signal that is totally inappropriate and hostile, to a Country that, as long as Donald J. Trump has been President, has been unthreatening and respectful,” Trump added.
Trump initially wanted to cancel the joint military exercises but said it was too late to do so. He instead ordered Secretary of War Pete Hegseth to scale them back.
In the same post, Trump also expressed frustration over South Korean President Lee Jae Myung’s decision not to assist the United States during the war in Iran, which began on Feb. 28.
“While somewhat unrelated (?), 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!’” Trump wrote.
The exercises were expected to last 11 days and involve 18,000 South Korean soldiers as part of preparations for a potential future threat from North Korea.
The drills were planned to include a live-fire exercise to test joint precision targeting and maneuver, a wet gap crossing, and the distribution of military equipment.
One day before Trump announced the scaled-back exercises, he posted an image of himself standing alongside North Korean leader Kim Jong Un when the two met at the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea in June 2019.
“Despite the unfriendly look on this particular picture, there are many where we’re smiling, Kim Jong Un and I get along GREAT!” Trump captioned the image in Saturday’s Truth Social post.
The meeting took place during Trump’s first term in office. At Kim’s invitation, Trump stepped onto the North Korean side of the demilitarized zone, becoming the first sitting U.S. president to enter the country.
Trump met Kim Jong Un three times during his first term in office and has frequently referred to the North Korean leader’s “beautiful” letters.
