President Donald Trump ordered the Pentagon to scale back upcoming joint U.S.-South Korea military exercises, arguing the operations cost too much and send a hostile message to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
The move comes as North Korea has ramped up weapons testing this month with two ballistic missile launches in six days.
Writing on Truth Social, Trump noted that while it was too late to cancel the drills entirely, he was dissatisfied with the longstanding military arrangement between Washington and Seoul.
“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.”
Trump’s directive came a day before the Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise, an 11-day annual joint military drill scheduled to begin Monday. This year’s exercise is set to involve roughly 18,000 South Korean troops, a level similar to previous years.
The routine maneuvers are designed to strengthen defense readiness across the Korean Peninsula, where about 28,500 U.S. service members are stationed as part of U.S. Forces Korea.
Pyongyang has consistently opposed the annual drills. North Korea’s Foreign Ministry called the exercise “a rehearsal for an aggressive war” last week in a statement carried by state media, according to Reuters.
Trump went further in his Truth Social post, linking his frustration over the military exercises to a separate diplomatic exchange regarding 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, referring to Lee Jae Myung.
The president criticized Seoul for declining to join U.S. efforts to denuclearize Iran while expecting continued American military support.
Trump’s order to scale back operations follows a fresh surge in weapons testing by Pyongyang, which conducted two ballistic missile launches within six days this month.
Following the most recent test on Aug. 12, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said it was consulting closely with regional allies, adding that its assessment indicated the launch did not pose an immediate threat to U.S. personnel, territory or allies.
U.S. officials issued a similar response after the earlier launch on Aug. 6, saying Washington remained committed to defending the U.S. homeland and its regional allies.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also warned that Pyongyang is using Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to test and refine its military hardware on active battlefields.
“For the first time in its history, Russia cannot wage war without reinforcements from North Korea,” Zelenskyy said in a statement posted to social media.
“NORTH KOREA’S BALLISTIC MISSILES AND OTHER WEAPONS ARE BEING IMPROVED THROUGH ITS COLLABORATION WITH RUSSIA. THE MORE NORTH KOREAN STRIKES THERE ARE HERE IN UKRAINE, IN EUROPE, THE MORE THEIR MISSILES AND SOLDIERS ARE USED, THE MORE THEY CORRECT THEIR SHORTCOMINGS AND BLIND SPOTS, THE GREATER THE DANGER WILL LATER BE FOR JAPAN, THE REPUBLIC OF KOREA, THE PHILIPPINES, AND OTHER COUNTRIES IN THE REGION.”
This is not the first time Trump has scaled back joint exercises with South Korea. During his first term, following his initial Singapore summit with Kim Jong-un, he called the “war games” provocative and expensive.
The Ulchi Freedom Shield drill begins Monday with a reduced U.S. presence per Trump’s directive.
