President Donald Trump has ordered the Pentagon to scale back its planned joint military exercises with South Korea.
The commander-in-chief posted the policy change to his Truth Social page on Sunday, just hours before the joint military exercises were scheduled to begin.
He noted that his decision was in part to do with his ‘very good relationship with Kim Jong Un,’ the leader of North Korea.
And Trump also made sure to mention how South Korea responded when the US asked the country to help him with his war against Iran.
According to the president, South Korea simply said ‘no thanks!’ to helping denuclearize the Middle Eastern country.
Trump wrote on Sunday night: ‘Based on my very good relationship with Kim Jong Un, I am not happy with the fact that the United States has, long ago, agreed to participate in Joint Military Exercises with South 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.
‘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!’
President Donald Trump announced on Sunday that the United States will be scaling back its military exercises with South Korea, citing his ‘very good relationship with Kim Jong Un.’ The two world leaders are pictured in a photo Trump shared to his Truth Social page on Saturday
He noted in his Truth Social post that the South Korean president declined to help the United States in its war in Iran
The president added that he recently asked South Korea’s president to join the US in its efforts to denuclearize Iran, ‘and they said, “No thanks!”‘
Prior to the announcement, the US military had been set to begin 11 days of exercises with 18,000 South Korean soldiers in an effort to beef up the country’s readiness against North Korean threats.
Those exercises then began as planned on Monday despite the president’s last-minute announcement, the South Korean Defense Ministry has confirmed.
The president’s decision to scale back the efforts was sharply criticized by Democratic Senator Mark Kelly, a former Navy pilot.
‘North and South Korea are still technically at war,’ he noted. ‘Our ability to help defend our ally against the North Koreans is because our forces are well-trained and able to coordinate with the South Koreans.
‘Hollowing out these joint exercises is shortsighted and a mistake’ he wrote in a social media post just hours after the president’s own post.
Senator Andy Kim, who became the first ever Korean-American senator when he won his election in 2024, also criticized the move.
‘Our alliance with the Republic of Korea is critical for US security and prosperity – and I am concerned that President Trump’s post today suggests a disregard for this relationship.’
He then went on to argue that ‘Decisions about joint exercises need to be made jointly – and not announced unilaterally by social media.
‘I will continue to press this administration to strengthen our security, economic, trade and technology ties – which all benefit the American people and the broader Indo-Pacific region,’ wrote Kim, a Democrat.
‘South Korea is an essential partner in peace and security in a part of the world filled with risk,’ he then noted. ‘We should treat them that way instead of venting frustration on social media.’
Prior to the announcement, the US military had been set to begin 11 days of exercises with 18,000 South Korean soldiers
Colonel Ryan Donald, director of public affairs for Combined Forces Command, United Nations Command and US Forces Korea, told reporters that the exercises this year would simulate combat against North Korean troops. He is pictured with Colonel Jang Do-young public affairs director of South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff
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Pentagon officials were also said to be taken aback by Trump’s announcement, according to The New York Times.
The US and South Korean militaries have held joint exercises for more than 70 years, since 1955. The US now even maintains its largest military installation overseas, Camp Humphreys, in South Korea, which is home to thousands of American service members, their families and Korean nationals.
Just last week, an official with the US and South Korean Combined Forces Command told reporters that the exercises this year would simulate combat against North Korean troops, who have gained crucial experience as they fight for Russia in its war against Ukraine.
Colonel Ryan Donald, director of public affairs for Combined Forces Command, United Nations Command and US Forces Korea, said in a news conference with members of the South Korean military last Monday that the exercises reflect the changing character of war, including the increased use of drones, electronic warfare and cyber operations.
‘DPRK soldiers have deployed and fought in Ukraine and they’ve taken those lessons they’ve learned there and brought them back to North Korea,’ he said, using an acronym for North Korea’s official name – the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
‘That changes the DPRK capability and our training accounts for that threat.’
The US and South Korean forces were expected to practice joint operations in complex scenarios, including a live-fire exercise to test joint precision targeting and maneuver, a wet gap crossing, and distribution of prepositioned military equipment.
Joint US-South Korean military exercises were scheduled to begin on Monday. Tourists sitting on a Seoul city tour bus were seen looking at anti-war protesters attending a rally to call for a halt to the annual Ulchi Freedom Shield joint military exercises between South Korea and the United States, in front of the US Embassy in Seoul on Monday
Anti-war protesters prepare for a rally, calling for a halt to the annual Ulchi Freedom Shield joint military exercises between South Korea and the United States
In an apparent response to the scheduled drills, North Korea has launched short-range ballistic missiles, which landed in the waters off North Korea´s east coast.
Kim on Friday also threatened unspecified stern steps against the US and South Korea, describing the drills as a ‘a rehearsal for an aggressive war’ that are triggering greater instability in the region.
The warning was typical of the harsh rhetoric that North Korea often deploys ahead of major US-South Korean military exercises. Experts say North Korea has often used its rivals’ drills as a pretext to ramp up testing activities to expand its weapons arsenals and promote public support for the reclusive North Korean leader.
He has been pushing hard to enlarge its nuclear and missile arsenals since Kim´s high-stakes diplomacy with Trump collapsed in 2019. Experts say Kim likely believes a bigger weapons arsenal would increase his chances for wresting more concessions from the US in future negotiations.
The US president had previously scaled back military operations in South Korea during his first term.
He told reporters in 2018 that the US ‘will be stopping the war games, which will save us a tremendous amount of money, unless and until we see the future negotiation is not going along like it should.’
Then, in March 2019, after a Trump-Kim summit in Hanoi failed to reach a nuclear agreement – the US and South Korea announced that the annual large-scale exercises would be re-configured into smaller exercises.
Since returning to office, Trump has expressed interest in continuing the nuclear discussions.
In an apparent response to the scheduled drills, North Korea has launched short-range ballistic missiles. – A man walks past a television screen showing a news broadcast with file footage of a North Korean missile test, at a train station in Seoul on October
The move on Sunday to once again decrease the size of the military exercises is now the latest example of the president appearing to side against an ally in favor 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, an ally of the United States for more than 70 years.
In May, Hegseth praised the long-time 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,’ the defense secretary added.
But on Saturday, just one day before Trump announced the plan to scale back the exercises, he posted a photo of himself standing next to Kim, writing that the two leaders get along great ‘despite the unfriendly look on this particular picture.’
The Daily Mail has reached out to the Pentagon and the South Korean Consulate for comment.
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