By Costas Pitas and David Lawder
Aug 16 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump has instructed the Pentagon to substantially reduce joint military exercises with South Korea, he said on Sunday in a social media post that also mentioned Seoul’s refusal to take part in actions against Iran.
Hours before exercises were scheduled to begin, Trump said in a post on his Truth Social site that although it was too late to cancel the exercises entirely, he was “not happy” that the United States had previously agreed to participate.
The annual Ulchi Freedom Shield joint military exercises are scheduled to run from August 17 to 27, with about 18,000 South Korean military personnel participating. The drills are expected to include operations to counter drones, disrupt GPS signals and cyberattacks to adapt to North Korea’s evolving capabilities, officials said last week.
In his social media post, the U.S. president also cited his “very good relationship” with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
“These exercises are not only costly… 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 wrote.
He also pointed to South Korea’s stance on the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran.
“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 White House did not immediately respond to a request for more information on Trump’s request to reduce the military drills. The Pentagon also did not immediately respond.
Pyongyang routinely denounces the U.S.-South Korean exercises as preparations for an invasion. North Korea last Wednesday fired a ballistic missile from its eastern coast towards the Sea of Japan, the South Korean and Japanese militaries said, six days after a similar North Korean short-range ballistic missile launch on August 6.
U.S. military officials have said that North Korean troops, who have fought alongside Russia in its invasion of Ukraine, have gained experience from the conflict, including the growing use of unmanned systems, electronic warfare and cyber operations.
Ukraine said last week that North Korean-made missiles were used in a Russian ballistic missile attack on a steel plant in Zaporizhzhia that killed seven workers and forced a production halt, with Russia’s Zircon hypersonic missiles also used in the attack.
(Reporting by Costas Pitas; Editing by Sergio Non, Edmund Klamann and Nia Williams)
