Trump orders US to cut back military exercises with ally South Korea

US President Donald Trump on Sunday instructed the Pentagon to “substantially reduce” joint military exercises with long-term Asian ally South Korea, citing the cost of the drills and Seoul’s refusal to take part in actions against Iran.

Hours before exercises were scheduled to begin, Trump said on his Truth Social site he was “not happy” that the US had agreed to participate and highlighted his “very good relationship” with Kim Jong Un, the leader of nuclear-armed and heavily sanctioned North Korea.

“These exercises are not only costly but also 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 wrote.

The annual Ulchi Freedom Shield joint military exercises are scheduled to run until August 27, with about 18,000 South Korean military personnel participating.

South Korea’s joint chiefs of staff said the drills started on Monday as scheduled but declined to comment on Trump’s remarks. The country’s presidential office and defence and foreign ministries did not immediately respond on a public holiday in Seoul.

A Pentagon spokesperson referred questions on the matter to the White House, which did not immediately respond to a request for details.

Trump has long sought to end or curtail military exercises with South Korea while clashing with Seoul over sharing the costs of stationing 28,500 US troops in South Korea and their role in securing the broader region.

North Korea, still technically at war with the South, routinely denounces the US-South Korean exercises as preparations for an invasion. Pyongyang last week fired a ballistic missile from its eastern coast towards the Sea of Japan, the South Korean and Japanese militaries said, days after a similar North Korean short-range ballistic missile launch.

“This decision may be part of a larger effort to create a diplomatic opportunity with Pyongyang, as Trump has consistently wanted since coming back to office, though the haphazard nature of this move is unlikely to make much of an impression in Pyongyang,” Jenny Town, head of the Stimson Centre think tank’s 38 North programme, said in an email.

The relationship between Trump and Kim has been a roller coaster for years.

Trump once mocked the North Korean leader as “little rocket man” and threatened Pyongyang with “fire and fury”, while Kim boasted he would “tame the mentally deranged US dotard with fire”.

Yet they also took part in three summits, with Trump declaring, “We fell in love” after exchanging letters with Kim. None of these efforts led to changes in North Korea’s nuclear weapons or ballistic missile development.

Even as Trump on Sunday spoke warmly of North Korea, he pointed to South Korea’s stance on the US-Israeli conflict with Iran.

“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.