South Korea shortens war games with US, citing Washington request
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Seoul Trims Joint Drills with Washington by Six Days
Ninoda.com – South Korea’s defence ministry confirmed that the annual Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise scheduled for 2026 will end on 21 August, six days earlier than the originally planned 27 August finish date. The adjustment to both the duration and scope of the manoeuvres was made at the behest of the United States, according to Seoul.
Trump’s Public Rationale
The decision follows President Donald Trump’s earlier declaration that he intended to scale back joint exercises with South Korea, pointing to what he described as his “very good” rapport with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. US officials separately informed the Wall Street Journal that Trump was pressing his staff to arrange a face-to-face meeting with the North Korean leader.
In a weekend post on Truth Social, Trump characterised the drills as expensive — with much of the bill, he noted, borne by the United States “as usual!” — and argued they project a signal that is “totally inappropriate and hostile.”
“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!'”
On Monday, speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, the president tied his curtailment decision directly to Seoul’s refusal to assist with an Iran operation.
“We have 39,000 soldiers over there guarding you from Kim Jong Un, your next door neighbour, and you’re not going to help us on a very easy military operation in Iran,” he said. “That’s strange.”
Seoul’s Reaction and Diplomatic Friction
Foreign Minister Cho Hyun told a parliamentary hearing that neither South Korean nor American officials had received advance notice of Trump’s intentions before they were made public. The ministry added that the combined field-training element of the exercise would be “partially reduced in scale,” though the precise parameters of that reduction remained under negotiation.
Analysts note that the abrupt downsizing rattles South Korean confidence in the mutual-defence pact that underpins the bilateral relationship. It also transmits a cautionary signal to other US partners in the region, including Japan and Taiwan.
Scale and Regional Context
When US and South Korean military commanders unveiled the Ulchi Freedom Shield plan in a joint press conference the previous week, they described the event as comparable in magnitude to prior editions, with roughly 18,000 South Korean troops taking part. Approximately 28,500 American service members are garrisoned on the Korean Peninsula.
During that same briefing, commanders referenced North Korea’s dispatch of troops to support Russia’s campaign in Ukraine. US military spokesperson Ryan Donald stated that “our training accounts for that threat,” alluding to North Korean soldiers expected to return from the Ukrainian battlefield.
In response to the press conference, North Korea’s foreign ministry denounced the joint drills as “a rehearsal for an aggressive war.”
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