Trump Orders Reduction of US-South Korea Joint Military Exercises Citing 'Hostile' Signal to North Korea

WASHINGTON, August 17. /TASS/. The US will reduce the scope of its joint military exercises with South Korea because they send a "totally inappropriate and hostile" signal to North Korea, President Donald Trump stated. Trump recalled his "very good relationship" with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and expressed dissatisfaction that "the US has, long ago, agreed to participate in joint military exercises with South Korea." "These exercises are not only costly, with much of these costs paid for by the US (as usual!), but send a signal that is totally inappropriate and hostile, to a country that, as long as Donald Trump has been president, has been unthreatening and respectful. Therefore, and based on the fact that it is too late to cancel, I have instructed Secretary of War Pete Hegseth to substantially reduce the joint military exercises," the US leader wrote in a post on his Truth Social page. Trump also noted that he recently asked the South Korean president whether his country would like to join the US "in the denuclearization of the Islamic Republic of Iran," to which he allegedly responded: "No thanks!".