News coverage of North Korea's ballistic missile launch into the East Sea airs at Seoul Station on Wednesday, ahead of the Ulchi Freedom Shield joint military exercises between South Korea and the United States. [Yonhap]
News coverage of North Korea's ballistic missile launch into the East Sea airs at Seoul Station on Wednesday, ahead of the Ulchi Freedom Shield joint military exercises between South Korea and the United States. [Yonhap]

US President Donald Trump said Sunday on his Truth Social platform that he has directed his defense secretary to significantly scale back joint military exercises with South Korea, citing his personal relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

The conciliatory message toward Pyongyang has drawn attention to the possibility of renewed US-North Korea dialogue for the first time in eight years, since the 2018 Singapore summit.

"Knowing that Chairman Kim Jong-un and I have a very good relationship, I am not happy about the fact that, for a long time, America has agreed to participate in joint military exercises with South Korea," Trump wrote.

He called the exercises "very expensive," noting that the United States bears a significant share of the costs.

Trump also said the drills send "a totally inappropriate and hostile signal" to countries that have not threatened the United States and have shown it respect since he took office.

By singling out North Korea as one such country, Trump indicated that he views the joint exercises as sending a hostile message toward Pyongyang.

"Taking into account that it is too late to cancel, I have instructed Secretary of Defense Hegseth to greatly reduce the size of the exercises," Trump said.

Trump posted the message at 5:04 p.m. Sunday Eastern time — 6:04 a.m. Monday Korean Standard Time — the opening day of the Ulchi Freedom Shield (UFS) joint exercises, which run through Aug. 27.

After the June 2018 Singapore US-North Korea summit, Trump called joint exercises a "waste of money," saying there was no need to spend on the drills while Washington was in negotiations with Pyongyang. Some exercises were subsequently suspended or scaled back.

This marks the first time Trump has ordered a reduction in joint drills since the start of his second administration. His invocation of a personal bond with Kim has also renewed speculation about a possible resumption of US-North Korea talks.

North Korea has been pushing back against the Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises, firing ballistic missiles into the East Sea on Aug. 6 and Wednesday.

Trump also wrote that, "on a somewhat unrelated matter," he had asked South Korean President Lee Jae-myung whether Seoul would be willing to join efforts to denuclearize Iran — and that the response was "No thanks!"

Trump did not specify what role he had sought from South Korea, but the remarks suggest Seoul declined to participate in Washington's Iran denuclearization push in the way Trump had hoped.


joze@heraldcorp.com