Washington and Seoul have been holding joint military exercises since the 1950s. They are seen as a signal of deterrence against North Korean aggression and of the allies' readiness for action. In all the years of military cooperation, there has hardly ever been an incident like the current one. South Korea and the USA will cut their current military exercises by around half.
As South Korea's General Staff announced, the maneuver will end on Friday at the request of the USA. It was originally planned that the military exercises entitled “Ulchi Freedom Shield”, which have been running since Monday, would last until August 27th. This step was preceded by a word of power from US President Donald Trump.
In a post on the online platform Truth Social at the weekend, he announced that the joint military exercise with South Korea would be significantly smaller - because there was no longer enough time to cancel it completely.
According to a report by the South Korean public broadcaster KBS, the armed forces of both countries should, as in previous years, practice defense against a simulated attack from North Korea. However, the previously planned counteroffensive was completely canceled. This point has not yet been officially confirmed.
South Korea's Foreign Minister Cho Hyun said at a hearing in parliament in Seoul on Wednesday that they were taken by surprise by Trump's announcement: "Our government representatives - like the representatives of the USA - knew nothing about it in advance." He suspected that the action was intended to pressure South Korea to become more involved in the Iran conflict.
Trump recently referred to his supposedly "very good relationship" with North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un. The military maneuvers sent a “totally inappropriate and hostile signal” to a country that – as long as he was president – had posed no threat and behaved with respect, Trump wrote.
Regardless of the latest developments, North Korea's state media reacted with sharp criticism to the military exercises that have been ongoing since Monday. Enemy states that violate North Korea's sovereignty would "at any time be targeted by our devastating retaliatory measures," said an article in the state news agency KCNA, which acts as the mouthpiece of the power apparatus in Pyongyang.
Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed US officials, reported that Trump wanted to meet dictator Kim this fall. There are no official plans yet. A meeting between the two could therefore take place in November, when heads of state and government from all over the world meet at the meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Community (Apec) in Shenzhen, China. The summit is scheduled for November 18-19.
Trump met Kim several times during his first term in office. After a first summit in Singapore in 2018, the second meeting between the two heads of state the following year in Hanoi ended in a scandal: Kim left before the end of the official program. The background was a conflict in the negotiations over North Korea's nuclear disarmament.
Cross-party criticism of Trump's Korea course
Trump himself had recently indicated new contacts with North Korea's rulers. When asked why Kim had not responded to his recent requests to talk, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Monday, "How do you know he hasn't responded?" When pressed further about whether Kim had actually responded, Trump replied, "Yes, he has." When asked what stage the talks with Kim were at, Trump added that it was "very positive." However, the US President did not provide any further details.
The US President repeated his criticism of South Korea - particularly because of the ally's refusal to take part in US military operations against Iran. "We can't go around protecting all these countries, especially when they're not there to help us," Trump said.
Trump's initial announcement to reduce maneuvers with South Korea drew bipartisan condemnation. The highest-ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, Jack Reed, spoke of a “crazy, haphazard decision” by the US President. According to Reed, the decision also contradicts a warning from the deputy commander of the responsible regional command Northcom, Joseph Jarrard. He pointed out that Pyongyang had successfully tested intercontinental ballistic missiles with "sufficient thrust to deliver a nuclear warhead to any location in North America."
Strong criticism also came from Republican Senator Thom Tillis - he referred to North Korea's support for Russia's war against Ukraine. Reducing joint exercises with South Korea would "do nothing other than free up thousands of North Korean soldiers to support Putin's systematic abduction, torture, rape and murder of innocent Ukrainian citizens," Tillis wrote in the online service X.
