South Korean Navy’s destroyer Yulgok Yi I (R), U.S. Navy’s USS Benfold (C), and Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force’s JS Atago (L) sail in formation during a joint naval exercise in international waters at an undisclosed location on April 17, 2023. South Korean Defense Ministry via Getty Images
President Donald Trump ordered the Pentagon to scale back joint military exercises with South Korea on Aug. 16.
“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 in a Truth Social post on Sunday.
Trump highlighted the expense of the exercises and suggested that it sent the wrong signal to North Korea.
“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,” Trump added.
The president initially wanted to pull the joint military exercises but said it was too late, so he ordered Secretary of War Pete Hegseth to scale it back.
In the same post, Trump shared frustration about how South Korean President Lee Jae Myung declined to assist the United States during the war in Iran, which started on Feb. 28.
“While somewhat unrelated (?), 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!’” Trump wrote.
The exercises were expected to last 11 days and include 18,000 South Korean soldiers in preparation for a future potential threat from North Korea.
Drills had planned to include a live-fire exercise to test joint precision targeting and maneuver, a wet gap crossing, and distributing military equipment.
One day before Trump revealed the scaled-back exercises, he posted an image of him standing alongside the North Korean leader when they
at the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea in June 2019.
“Despite the unfriendly look on this particular picture, there are many where we’re smiling, Kim Jong Un and I get along GREAT!” he captioned on Saturday’s Truth Social post.
During the meeting, which happened in Trump’s first term, the president stepped onto the North Korean side of the zone upon the invitation of Kim, making him the first sitting U.S. president to enter the country.
Trump met the North Korean leader three times during his first term in office and has often mentioned his “beautiful” letters.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
