Trump orders reduction in US–South Korea military drills, cites Kim Jong Un ties

US President Donald Trump. Photo: AFP

US President Donald Trump said Sunday he was “not happy” about US participation in joint military exercises with close ally South Korea and is scaling back the drills aimed at deterring rival North Korea that start Monday.

“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 on his Truth Social platform.

“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,” he continued.

Trump added that it was too late to cancel the drills so he had ordered Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth to “substantially reduce” them.

The “Ulchi Freedom Shield” exercise, which starts on Monday and runs for 11 days, is a regular summer fixture for South Korea’s armed forces and their US allies, designed to steel them for defence against the nuclear-armed North.

Pyongyang has always been angered by the drills, decrying them as dress rehearsals for an invasion.

During his first term as president, Trump held historic direct talks with Kim that ultimately failed in the goal of tackling North Korea’s nuclear weapons program. He last met with Kim in person in 2019.

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Last Monday, Colonel Ryan Donald, spokesman for the US and South Korean Combined Forces Command, said the exercise would simulate combat against North Korean troops battle-hardened by deployment in the Russia-Ukraine war.

The exercise, enlisting 18,000 South Korean troops and counterparts from the US contingent of 28,500 in the country, will have a heightened focus on drone warfare, GPS disruption and the role of cyber attacks, he said.

South Korea’s dovish President Lee Jae Myung has reversed the stance of his hawkish predecessor since taking power in June 2025, offering Pyongyang talks without preconditions.

But the leadership of North Korea has yet to respond to his repeated offers.

The two Koreas remain technically at war because their 1950-53 war, triggered by a North Korean attack, ended with an armistice rather than a peace treaty.