Military drills scaled back hours before start

South Korea’s presidential office said it remained in “close coordination” with Washington on the exercises, while the defense ministry said the maneuvers had kicked off as “previously notified and scheduled.”

“Based on my very good relationship with Kim Jong Un, of North Korea, I am not happy with the fact that the United States has, long ago, agreed to participate in Joint Military Exercises with South Korea,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

“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,” he added.

As it was too late to cancel the drills, Trump said he had ordered Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to “substantially reduce” them.

North Korea has not responded publicly to the statements, though it has consistently voiced anger at the regular exercises.

The 11-day maneuvers come as Pyongyang and Moscow have grown closer, with the North providing military support — including ground troops — for Russia’s war against Ukraine.

Colonel Ryan Donald, spokesperson for the US and South Korean Combined Forces Command, had said the drills would simulate combat against North Korean troops battle-hardened by deployment in the Russia-Ukraine war.

South Korea’s presidential office said in a statement to Agence France-Presse that Seoul and Washington “have maintained close coordination on maintaining a firm combined defense posture and on their joint exercises and training, and will continue to coordinate closely.”

It said it hoped the personal chemistry between Trump and Kim would bring them back to talks.

The office “hopes that the friendly relationship between the leaders of the United States and North Korea will lead to meaningful dialogue,” it said.

‘New level of deterrent’

Pyongyang decries the drills as dress rehearsals for an invasion.

After test-firing a ballistic missile over the Sea of Japan as a sign of its opposition to the exercises, Pyongyang warned on Friday it could respond with a “new level of deterrent.”

The US stations about 28,500 troops in South Korea to bolster the country’s defenses against military threats from Pyongyang, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War that ended with an armistice rather than a peace treaty.

But Trump has repeatedly challenged long-standing alliances, especially as Western partners have withheld overt backing for his war against Iran.

Trump took aim at South Korea in Sunday’s post, writing: “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!’”

‘Damage coordination’

The exercise — comprising 18,000 South Korean troops and counterparts from US forces in the country — will have a heightened focus on drone warfare, GPS disruption and the role of cyber attacks, Colonel Donald had said.

Downsizing it will “damage alliance coordination, slow the process of South Korea taking on greater responsibility for its own defense, and weaken deterrence against possible conflicts in Asia,” Leif-Eric Easley, a professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul, told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

“The cost savings from downsizing drills are marginal, while the diplomatic benefits for relations with North Korea are doubtful,” he added.

Lim Eul-chul, a North Korea expert at Kyungnam University, told AFP Pyongyang was unlikely to be moved by Trump’s announcement.

“The North will only view it as meaningful if the joint exercises are cancelled in their entirety rather than scaled back,” he said.

“I am doubtful it will draw an immediate reaction from Kim Jong Un in that regard.”