Analysis by WorldTribune Staff, August 17, 2026 Non-AI Real World News
President Donald Trump, citing his "very good relationship" with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un and criticizing the leftist government in Seoul's refusal to support the U.S. military efforts against Iran, has ordered the Department of War to "substantially reduce" major joint military exercises with South Korea.
The directive specifically targets the 10-day Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises.
Since returning to the White House in 2025, Trump has been silent about re-engaging with Kim Jong-Un with whom he famously bonded in his first term. And he has largely been silent about South Korea's leftist administration of President Lee Jae-Myung which has been aligning with China and has resisted demands that election fraud be investigated.
Meanwhile, during the Biden Administration, North Korea emerged as a power with nuclear weapons and long-range strategic missiles and has formed a formidable military partnership with Russia in its war with Ukraine.
Regarding his decision to scale back military exercises with South Korea, Trump wrote in a post to Truth Social:
"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.
"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!' Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DONALD J. TRUMP."
"The order dealt a shocking blow to American and South Korean military leaders and was expected to deal a severe setback to Washington's relations with Seoul at a time when South Korea's left-leaning government was already at odds with Washington on a range of economic and security issues," noted correspondent Donald Kirk, a Geostrategy-Direct.com contributing editor, for the New York Sun.
Trump and Kim have met three times: Singapore in June 2018, Hanoi in February 2019 and at the DMZ in June 2019.
The exercises were expected to last 11 days and include 18,000 South Korean soldiers in preparation for a future potential threat from North Korea.
Drills had planned to include a live-fire exercise to test joint precision targeting and maneuver, a wet gap crossing, and distributing military equipment, according to the Department of War.
South Korea's Chosun Ilbo reported that the American military command had "used the phrase 'projecting combat power within the First Island Chain,' pointing to a role for the U.S. Forces Korea beyond the Korean Peninsula." The term "first island chain" refers to island groupings from Japan extending south through Taiwan and the Philippines to Australia and New Zealand.
One day before Trump revealed the scaled-back exercises, he posted an image of him standing alongside Kim Jong-Un when they met at the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea in June 2019.
"Despite the unfriendly look on this particular picture, there are many where we're smiling, Kim Jong Un and I get along GREAT!" he captioned on his post to Truth Social on Saturday.
During his meeting with the North Korean leader, Trump stepped onto the North Korean side of the zone upon the invitation of Kim, making him the first sitting U.S. president to enter the country.
Trump met the North Korean leader three times during his first term in office and has often mentioned his "beautiful" letters.
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