Trump orders joint military exercises with South Korea to be scaled back

U.S. President Donald Trump ordered the Pentagon on Sunday to scale back planned joint military exercises with South Korea, saying it declined to help denuclearize Iran and citing his good relationship with North Korea's Kim Jong-un.

Trump said in a social media post that the exercises slated to begin this week are not only costly but "send a signal that is totally inappropriate and hostile" to North Korea, which he said "has been unthreatening and respectful" during his time in the White House.

"Therefore, and based on the fact that it is too late to cancel, I have instructed Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, to substantially reduce the Joint Military Exercises!" Trump wrote. The president added that he recently asked South Korea's president to join the U.S. in its efforts to denuclearize Iran, "and they said, `No thanks!"'

The move is the latest example of the president appearing to side against an ally in favour of a leader that previous administrations have cast as an adversary. Trump and others in his administration have also railed against NATO allies over perceived lack of support for his war against Iran, even as they seek to confront an increasingly aggressive Russia in the Baltic region.

It is also a sharp turnaround from how his administration has viewed South Korea in recent months.

In May, Hegseth praised the longtime ally for its "commitment to increase defense spending" and its "leadership in assuming primary responsibility for the security of the Korean Peninsula" during a meeting at the Pentagon.

"It demonstrates alliance burden-sharing that all of America's partners would do well to follow," Hegseth added.

The 11 days of exercises involving 18,000 South Korean soldiers were designed to beef up readiness against North Korean threats.

The U.S. military has said the summertime Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises reinforce "the role of the alliance as the linchpin for regional peace and security" and reaffirm "the ironclad commitment between the United States and the Republic of Korea to defend their homelands."

U.S. and South Korean forces were expected to practise joint operations in complex scenarios, including a live-fire exercise to test joint precision targeting and manoeuvre, a wet gap crossing and distribution of prepositioned military equipment, according to the U.S. military.

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The joint training is set to start days after North Korea resumed ballistic missile testing activities that are banned by the United Nations.

Trump's decision was sharply criticized by Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly, a former navy pilot, who said that "hollowing out these joint exercises is shortsighted and a mistake" in a social media post made just hours after the president's own post.

Earlier this month, South Korea, the U.S. and Japan detected the launch of a short-range ballistic missile from North Korea in what was the North's first ballistic weapons testing activity since late June. The missile landed in the waters off North Korea's east coast.