President Trump on Sunday said that he had ordered US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth to “substantially reduce” joint military exercises with South Korea, citing his relationship with North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un.
“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. 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,” the president wrote on Truth Social.
“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! 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!'” he added.
Trump’s statement came as the US and South Korea were set to begin a major annual war game known as Ulchi Freedom Shield. It remains to be seen whether the exercises, scheduled to last 11 days, will go ahead at all or be scaled down.
The US president met with Kim three times in his first administration, and following their first meeting, the US and South Korea suspended major war games, though they resumed in 2022 under President Biden and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, who was much more hawkish toward the North than his predecessor, Moon Jae-in.
Yoon was impeached and removed from office in 2025 over his brief attempt to use martial law and the military to shut down the National Assembly in December 2024, and his successor, Lee Jae Myung, has taken a different approach toward Pyongyang, calling for reviving peace efforts.
“Let us put down our intentions to threaten each other and begin discussions to end the long-running war as the directly involved parties,” Lee said on Friday. “Through this, it may also be possible to discuss effective measures to halt the advancement of North Korea’s nuclear capabilities.”
Trump’s announcement came a day after he shared a photo of one of his meetings with Kim. “Despite the unfriendly look on this particular picture, there are many where we’re smiling, Kim Jong Un and I get along GREAT!” he wrote on Truth Social.
While Trump pursued diplomacy with North Korea in his first term, a report from The New York Times published last year revealed that he also oversaw a botched raid carried out by Navy SEALS. The purpose of the raid was to plant a listening device, but the SEALS opened fire on a boat that approached them, killing everyone onboard, and then retreated.
