Trump orders Pentagon to substantially reduce military exercises with South Korea, citing relationship with Kim Jong Un

The decision

President Donald Trump announced on Truth Social on Sunday that he had instructed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to "substantially reduce" U.S. participation in the annual Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises with South Korea, scheduled to begin Monday. Trump said it was "too late to cancel" the exercises entirely. The drills, lasting 11 days, were set to involve approximately 18,000 South Korean soldiers and are designed to strengthen readiness against North Korean threats. U.S. and South Korean military leaders had held a joint press conference the previous week to announce the program, indicating it would have a magnitude similar to previous years. The American and South Korean forces were expected to practice joint operations in complex scenarios, including a live-fire exercise to test joint targeting accuracy and maneuvering, a crossing of a flooded defile, and distribution of pre-positioned military equipment.

Trump's justification

Trump offered multiple reasons for the reduction, tying it to his relationship with Kim Jong Un and South Korea's refusal to support U.S. efforts against Iran. He said he had recently asked South Korean President Lee Jae Myung whether South Korea would join the United States in the "denuclearization of the Islamic Republic of Iran," and Seoul declined. Trump acknowledged the Iran connection was "relatively unrelated" to the exercises. The previous day, Trump posted a photograph of himself alongside Kim Jong Un from their 2019 meeting, writing that the two leaders get along "VERY WELL!" despite unfriendly expressions in that particular photo.

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.

Military and regional context

The joint exercises have been held for more than 70 years, since 1955, following the 1953 armistice that ended the Korean War. U.S. military spokesman Ryan Donald said the training accounts for the threat posed by North Korean troops deployed to assist Russia in its war against Ukraine, referring to soldiers returning from the battlefield. North Korea's foreign ministry on Friday condemned the exercises as "a rehearsal for aggressive war" causing a new level of instability in the region, reiterating its right to self-defense against any threat or challenge. North Korea views the exercises as a rehearsal for invasion.

Missile tests and prior history

The announcement came days after North Korea resumed ballistic missile testing this month, activity prohibited by the United Nations. South Korea, the United States, and Japan detected a second North Korean missile test, with Pyongyang firing a ballistic missile over the Sea of Japan on Wednesday as a sign of protest. Trump met Kim Jong Un three times during his first term to discuss Pyongyang's nuclear program, most recently in 2019. During his first term, Trump also attempted to halt the exercises, calling them "provocative" after his 2018 Singapore meeting with Kim.

We will stop the military exercises, which will save us an enormous amount of money, unless and until we see that future negotiations do not proceed as they should.

Since returning to the White House in January 2025, Trump has expressed interest in resuming discussions with North Korea. The New York Times noted that Trump did not mention the 2017 rift, when Kim called him a "mentally deranged dotard" after Trump threatened to "totally destroy" North Korea in a U.N. speech. Separately, Trump praised a defense pact concluded between Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Pakistan.