South Korea to halve joint military exercise with U.S. following Trump directive

South Korea's military said Wednesday that it would cut an annual joint military exercise with the U.S. by about half, after President Donald Trump ordered the Pentagon to scale it back and reportedly pushed to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as soon as this fall.

The annual joint Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise period will be reduced to Aug. 17 to 21, according to a statement from South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff, noting the decision was a U.S. proposal. The program had originally been scheduled to conclude on Aug. 27.

The allies also decided to scale back some of the combined field training exercises, according to the armed forces, with the specifics still under discussion between the two.

The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that Trump is pressing aides to arrange a meeting with North Korea's Kim Jong Un as soon as this fall, in a push to revive personal diplomacy with the reclusive leader. The two previously met face-to-face during Trump's first term, in 2018, in Singapore.

Trump has privately discussed arranging an in-person meeting with Kim during his next trip to Asia, likely in November, the Journal said, when he is expected to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Shenzhen, China.

The developments came after Trump ordered Secretary of War Pete Hegseth to scale back "substantially" the joint military drills on Sunday evening stateside, just before its start on Monday.

The moves mark the latest escalation of Trump's outreach to Pyongyang, unsettling a 70-year alliance with South Korea already battered by the transfer of wartime operational control and Seoul's refusal to back U.S. efforts on Iran.

The allies had planned 14 combined field-training programs alongside this year's command-post exercise, which was to include about 18,000 South Korean troops, according to the Associated Press.

Allies are likely to respond to the U.S.'s scaled-back involvement by bolstering their own military capacity, increasing defense spending, and forming new partnerships with neighbors, said Jennifer Kavanagh, senior fellow and director of military analysis at Defense Priorities.

Defense autonomy would bring foreign policy independence and an end to the insecurity that comes with outsourcing national defense to a foreign power, she said.

"Allies will become more self-sufficient over time, and they will need the United States less," she added, pointing to rising defense budgets and deepening cooperation among Japan, the Philippines, South Korea and Australia.

For Washington, the benefits of a reduced footprint in Asia would "far outweigh" the loss of influence, Kavanagh said, as a smaller defense burden means more money for domestic priorities and a reduced risk of major war, including with China.