Seoul, Washington cut drills short as Trump pursues another Kim summit

Seoul and Washington scaled back their annual summertime combined military exercise, a rare move that comes as U.S. President Donald Trump reportedly pushes for a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un as early as this fall.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) and Pentagon confirmed Wednesday that the 11-day Ulchi Freedom Shield (UFS), the large-scale South Korea-U.S. exercise that began on Monday and was set to run until Aug. 27, will be cut short by half to Friday — per Trump’s directive to reduce the allied drills.  

The JCS said that the period and scale of this year’s UFS had been adjusted upon the “U.S. side's request." Likewise, some field training drills will be reduced, and discussions are underway between the two sides on detailed plans.

The U.S. Department of Defense also confirmed the scaled-down exercises later Wednesday, stating that drills associated with live-fire training events were reduced, canceled or converted to simulations.

A Pentagon official underscored that the “adjustments preserve essential readiness and training objectives” and that there “will be no degradation to U.S. training objectives.”

The unusual decision to scale back the UFS as the exercise is underway comes after Trump announced Sunday he had instructed U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to reduce the joint drills, citing his “very good relationship” with North Korean leader Kim in a Truth Social post.

In turn, Trump is pressing his aides to arrange one-on-one talks with Kim as early as November, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday, citing U.S. officials, in a move to “revive a dramatic diplomatic quest” from his first term.

Some analysts say that the South Korean government may be pressured by the United States to accept unreasonable demands or risk a downward spiral in bilateral ties, an indicator of precarious relations between Seoul and Washington, while others see a golden opportunity to push forward the Lee administration’s phased peace initiative toward the North.

Security observers, however, point out that scaling back combined exercises could undermine the foundation of the combined defense posture, which is tied to the planned transfer of wartime operational control (Opcon) from the United States to Korea.

Seoul and Washington conduct two large-scale combined exercises annually in the spring and summer. Pyongyang has characterized such joint military drills as “war rehearsals.” Canceling and downsizing such combined exercises during Trump’s first term contributed to a period of détente on the Korean Peninsula as North-U.S. denuclearization negotiations took place in 2018 and 2019.

However, it is nearly unprecedented for a joint exercise currently underway under an agreement between South Korean and U.S. military authorities to be halted mid-exercise.

The UFS exercise is divided into a Command Post Exercise (CPX), conducted through computer simulation, and the Field Training Exercise (FTX), involving field maneuvers across land, sea and air. The CPX was divided into two parts: a defense drill in the first week and a counterattack drill scheduled for the second week.

However, the counterattack drill, which Pyongyang is most sensitive about, was canceled.

It is also reported that the number of FTX drills is likely to fall below 10, with some of the existing 14 battalion-level exercises being converted to separate training drills by South Korea and the United States.  

On Monday, Trump told reporters at the White House that Kim has responded to his overtures for dialogue. The affirmation, though uncorroborated, has further fueled speculation about a possible meeting during Trump’s November trip to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Shenzhen, China.

The APEC summit takes place after the U.S. midterm elections on Nov. 3, and Trump could seek to regain the diplomatic spotlight from his three previous summits with Kim, though it is unclear whether the now older North Korean leader, who has built strong ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin since then, will be responsive

Pyongyang on Wednesday again slammed the Seoul-Washington military exercise, saying it “poses the most immediate and open threat” to North Korea and regional security.

North Korea vowed to “completely neutralize the enemies' military threat until the enemy states give up their reckless dream of overwhelming someone by force and completely abandon their attempt to break the balance of strength in Northeast Asia and the Asia-Pacific region beyond the Korean Peninsula,” in a commentary carried by North’s official Korean Central News Agency. The commentary made no direct mention of Trump.

Foreign Minister Cho Hyun, in a briefing to the National Assembly Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee on Wednesday, downplayed concerns raised by opposition lawmakers about a “security loophole” or Seoul being sidelined and assessed a summit this fall between Trump and Kim, if realized, would mark "a new turning point.”

He said that the South Korean government “has been making thorough preparations to open channels for dialogue with North Korea and will closely consult with the U.S. side so as not to miss this opportunity.” Seoul has conveyed such intentions to Washington but has yet to receive a response, he added.

Regarding Trump’s directive to scale back combined military exercises, Cho told lawmakers that “neither our government nor U.S. government officials were aware of the matter in advance,” a point also confirmed by South Korea's defense minister. This indicated that Seoul learned about the instruction through Trump’s social media post.

Cho said new U.S. Ambassador to Seoul Michelle Steel was called to the Foreign Ministry “to discuss the matter.”

Likewise, Cho brushed off concern that reducing the exercise — considered an occasion to test Seoul’s military readiness — could affect the planned transfer of Opcon, noting that the drills “are being scaled back upon the request of the U.S. side."

Addressing the possibility of a North-U.S. summit on the margins of the APEC summit in Shenzhen, China, in November, Cho said such a meeting “will take place in some form if Chairman Kim Jong-un wants it."

In this regard, Unification Minister Chung Dong-young also said in the parliamentary briefing that he hopes the scaled-back drills “will develop into meaningful dialogue between North Korea and the United States and expand to the improvement of inter-Korean relations,” noting that a “common goal of the South Korea-U.S. alliance is peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula.”

This is in line with the Blue House stance, as National Security Adviser Wi Sung-lac on Tuesday told reporters that Seoul is eager to see friendly relations between North Korea and the United States “lead to meaningful dialogue." President Lee Jae Myung has been keen on playing a “pacemaker” role to revive North Korea-U.S. dialogue as part of his phased initiative to bring about peace and denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula.

In a separate plenary session of the parliamentary Legislation and Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-back said Trump’s claim that South Korea rejected a request to join U.S. efforts to denuclearize Iran was "not consistent with the facts."

Trump’s remark linking the North Korea issue with Iran sparked speculation that Seoul’s alleged refusal to cooperate with Washington on Tehran may have influenced Trump’s decision to scale back the combined exercises.

Trump, in Sunday’s Truth Social Post on the military drills, wrote that he has asked the South Korean president to join Washington in the denuclearization of Iran and got a “No thanks!”

Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Monday, Trump directly linked his decision to South Korea's refusal to "give us a little hand" with Iran. He said he told South Korean President Lee that the United States had some “39,000 soldiers over there guarding you from Kim Jong-un, your next door neighbor, and you're not going to help us on a very easy military operation in Iran.”

Some 28,500 U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea, though Trump has frequently inflated the number since his first term.

BY SARAH KIM [[email protected]]