US President Donald Trump has announced a significant reduction in American troop participation in joint military exercises with South Korea.
Writing on his platform Truth Social, Trump attributed the decision to what he described as a very good relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Trump criticized the joint maneuvers as costly and stated that they send an entirely inappropriate and hostile message to Pyongyang. He added that North Korea has ceased to be a threat since his return to the White House and is showing respect to the United States.
Washington and Seoul have maintained a formal security alliance since the end of the Korean War in 1953. Tens of thousands of American troops are stationed in South Korea to assist in defense along the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone dividing the peninsula.
The latest edition of the annual large-scale maneuvers, officially named Ulchi Freedom Shield, commenced on Monday and is scheduled to last for 11 days. The drills aim to bolster the operational readiness of South Korean and American forces to counter any prospective attack from nuclear-armed North Korea.
Disagreement over Iranian nuclear operations
In his statement, Trump also referenced South Korea's decision not to participate in American military operations targeting Iran. He said he had recently asked the president of South Korea if the nation wished to join Washington in efforts to achieve the denuclearization of Iran, but the South Korean leader declined the invitation.
The announcement came shortly after a separate post published a day earlier, in which Trump shared a photograph from his 2019 summit with Kim during his first presidential term. Trump noted that although the two men did not look particularly friendly in that specific picture, many other photographs captured them smiling, asserting that he and Kim get along greatly.
Trump and Kim previously held historic summit meetings in Singapore and Hanoi between 2018 and 2019 to discuss North Korean nuclear disarmament, though formal negotiations subsequently stalled without a comprehensive agreement.
North Korean missile launch and warnings
North Korea has long opposed combined military activities between American and South Korean forces, characterizing them as rehearsal drills for an invasion of its territory. Last week, officials in Pyongyang denounced the scheduled maneuvers and warned that North Korea might adopt more vigorous deterrence measures.
The diplomatic friction escalated on Wednesday when North Korea launched a ballistic missile into the sea off its eastern coast, also known as the Sea of Japan. The missile test was evaluated by regional observers as an explicit demonstration of protest against the joint military exercises.
