US President Donald Trump has ordered the Pentagon to scale back planned joint military exercises with South Korea, citing their cost and asserting that the drills send a hostile signal to North Korea.
In a social media post on Sunday, Trump said the exercises, scheduled to begin this week, “send a signal that is totally inappropriate and hostile” to Pyongyang, which he described as “unthreatening and respectful” during his time in the White House.
The president linked the decision to a separate grievance, saying that South Korea had declined to assist in efforts to denuclearise Iran. He has recently pursued a series of diplomatic moves in the region, including earlier steps to de-escalate the conflict with Tehran.
The order marks a significant shift in the decades-old security posture between Washington and Seoul, whose combined forces routinely conduct large-scale exercises that have long been a fixture of the alliance.
North Korea has repeatedly condemned the drills. On Friday, Pyongyang threatened unspecified steps against the United States and South Korea, describing the exercises as “a rehearsal for an aggressive war.”
The joint manoeuvres have historically served as a demonstration of the US-South Korea alliance and a deterrent against potential aggression from the North. Pyongyang has consistently viewed them as provocations that threaten its security.
Trump has previously expressed reservations about the cost of maintaining a large US military presence in Asia and has questioned the value of the exercises during earlier engagement with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
The scale of the reduction and its timing remain unclear, as does the response from Seoul, which relies heavily on the alliance for its defence against a nuclear-armed neighbour.
The decision is likely to reverberate across the region, where allies and adversaries alike closely monitor shifts in Washington’s commitment to East Asian security. It also raises questions about the future coordination of US and South Korean forces on the peninsula.