Trump reiterates remarks on South Korea-U.S. exercise cuts
Trump again defended scaling back South Korea-U.S. military exercises while signaling interest in renewed diplomacy with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
U.S. President Donald Trump, left, meets with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at the North Korean side of the border at the village of Panmunjom in Demilitarized Zone, on June 30, 2019.
AP/YONHAP
U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday reiterated his earlier remarks about a directive to scale back South Korea-U.S. military exercises and his "very good" relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, as he seeks to reengage with Kim this year.
Trump posted the message on social media — which was identical to his Aug. 16 post except for a change in tense — amid speculation that he could pursue a meeting with Kim during his next trip to Asia, likely for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Shenzhen, China, in November.
Earlier this month, he instructed the Pentagon to "substantially" scale back the allied military exercises. Subsequently, Seoul and Washington shortened the annual combined Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise from 11 days to five, reducing or canceling other field training events.
"Based on my very good relationship with Kim Jong-un, of North Korea, I was not happy with the fact that the United States had, long ago, agreed to participate in Joint Military Exercises with South Korea," Trump wrote on Truth Social.
"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," he added.
The latest post came a day after he posted three photos of his meetings with Kim — in Singapore during their first summit in June 2018 and the inter-Korean border village of Panmunjom for their third and last meeting in June 2019 — in an apparent show of his desire to rekindle personal diplomacy with Kim.
On Aug. 15, he also posted a photo of his meeting with Kim at Panmunjom on Truth Social, repeating his claim that he and Kim "get along great." In June, he posted a photo of the leaders' meeting in Singapore in 2018.
In Tuesday's post, Trump also repeated his claim that South Korea did not accede to his request to help the United States address the Iran war.
Yonhap
