US military vehicles stand by during a river-crossing exercise along the Imjin River in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, on Thursday, ahead of the early conclusion of the Ulchi Freedom Shield joint military exercise. [Yonhap]
US military vehicles stand by during a river-crossing exercise along the Imjin River in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, on Thursday, ahead of the early conclusion of the Ulchi Freedom Shield joint military exercise. [Yonhap]

The Ulchi Freedom Shield (UFS), the annual combined US-South Korea military exercise designed to defend the Korean Peninsula in the event of a crisis, will end early on Friday.

The exercise began Monday and was originally scheduled to run through Aug. 27, but Donald Trump's order to scale it back cut the training period from 11 days to five — the first time in history that an ongoing theater-level combined exercise has been reduced in duration and scope.

UFS, held every August, is divided into two phases: a defense-focused first phase and a second phase covering counteroffensive operations.

Only the first phase was conducted this year; the second phase, scheduled for Monday through Thursday, was canceled. A significant number of the 14 associated field training exercises are also expected to be scaled back, with some to be conducted by South Korean forces alone or rescheduled.

Trump posted on Truth Social on Sunday (local time) that he was directing Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to sharply reduce the exercises, saying he was "not thrilled" about US participation in joint military drills with South Korea "given the fact that I have a very good relationship with Chairman Kim Jong-un of North Korea."

The Pentagon confirmed it had "significantly reduced" UFS in line with the president's and defense secretary's instructions, adding that "there will be no degradation of training objectives."

Trump's directive is widely seen as an effort to create conditions for resuming dialogue with Kim, with the aim of arranging a summit before the end of the year.

The move drew bipartisan concern in Congress. Republican Sen. Tom Tillis and Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly wrote in a joint letter that they were "deeply concerned" by the decision to sharply curtail the joint exercises, urging that training "necessary to maintain the readiness of the US-South Korea alliance" continue.

Kim Yo-jong, vice director of the Korean Workers' Party, offered a cold response, saying that "a reduction in the scale of the exercises does not change their essence."


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