Trump Announces Cut to ROK-US Joint Exercise, Says He Has a "Good Relationship" With Kim Jong Un

[Financial News Seoul and New York = reporter Park Jong-won, Seong Seok-woo, and Lee Byung-chul] U.S. President Donald Trump announced on the day the Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise began that he would scale back the ROK-US Combined Military Exercise. He said he did not want to send a hostile signal to North Korea, and expressed disappointment with the South Korean government.
In a post on Truth Social on the 16th local time, Trump said, "Given that Chairman of the State Affairs Commission Kim Jong-un and I have a very good relationship, I do not like the fact that the United States has long agreed to take part in joint military exercises with South Korea." He said the drills "cost a lot," adding that the United States, as usual, bears much of that expense. Trump did not specifically mention North Korea, but he described the ROK-US Combined Military Exercise as "sending a completely inappropriate and hostile signal to a country that respects the United States and does not threaten us since I took office." He wrote, "Accordingly, I have instructed Secretary of War Pete Hegseth to significantly reduce the scale of the joint exercise, given that it is now too late to cancel it." The announcement came on the day Ulchi Freedom Shield, the ROK-US joint exercise running from the 17th to the 27th in Korea time, began.
Andy Kim, a Korean American Democratic Party of Korea senator from Morristown, New Jersey, wrote on X on the 16th, "The alliance with South Korea is extremely important to U.S. security and prosperity. I am concerned that the president's post today could be seen as downplaying this relationship." On the same day, Democratic Party of Korea Senator Mark Edward Kelly of Arizona also criticized the move on X, saying, "Neutralizing joint exercises is a short-sighted and obvious mistake."
A Blue House official said on the 17th, in response to Trump's remarks, that "South Korea and the United States have been closely coordinating on maintaining a firm combined defense posture and on joint exercises and training." The official added that Trump's reference to North Korea means "we hope discussions will begin to advance peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula as the friendly relationship between the leaders of North Korea and the United States leads to meaningful North Korea-U.S. dialogue."
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