Top Democrat slams Trump’s ‘inane, haphazard’ cuts to US-South Korea drills – live

US president Donald Trump said he ordered the Pentagon to scale back “inappropriate and hostile” military drills with South Korea, hours before the exercises began on Monday.

The drills under Ulchi Freedom Shield, one of two major annual exercises held by South Korea and the US, start on Monday and run until 27 August.

They were expected to involve about 18,000 South Korean troops, alongside US forces and personnel from 11 of the 18 member states of the United Nations Command (UNC), the multinational body that oversees the 1953 armistice that halted hostilities of the Korean war.

However, on Sunday evening, the US president said he was “not happy” with US participation “based on my very good relationship with Kim Jong-un”. He added that they were costly and “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 that it was too late to cancel the drills so he had ordered the defence secretary, Pete Hegseth , to “substantially reduce” them. He also said South Korea had refused to help in the “denuclearisation of the Islamic republic of Iran”.

Cheong Seong-chang, vice-president of the Seoul-based Sejong Institute thinktank, said Trump could go further if he meets Kim again, potentially deciding to suspend the exercises altogether or reduce US troop levels without consulting South Korea .

However, Leif-Eric Easley, a professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul, cautioned that downsizing the exercise would “slow the process of South Korea taking on greater responsibility for its own defence, and weaken deterrence against possible conflicts in Asia”.

“The cost savings from downsizing drills are marginal, while the diplomatic benefits for relations with North Korea are doubtful,” he told Agence France-Presse.

Lim Eul-chul, a North Korea expert at Kyungnam University, added that Pyongyang was unlikely to be moved by Trump’s announcement. “The North will only view it as meaningful if the joint exercises are cancelled in their entirety rather than scaled back. It has little reason to see this as meaningful.”

Andy Burnham exchanged messages with someone impersonating Donald Trump’s chief of staff, the Guardian understands. The UK prime minister was in contact with an unknown individual pretending to be the senior White House aide Susie Wiles before concerns were raised about the incident. No messages of significance were sent and the suspicious activity was quickly reported to the appropriate authorities, it is understood.

Donald Trump’s son-in-law and envoy, Jared Kushner , held a rare meeting with Hamas ’s political chief on Sunday in Egypt , in a new diplomatic effort to make progress in the stalled Gaza ceasefire.