U.S. to scale back military drills with South Korea, Trump says

U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday said he ordered the Defense Department to substantially reduce American troops’ participation in joint military exercises with South Korea. He didn’t detail the exact scope of U.S. involvement in the annual exercises, which began Monday with roughly 18,000 Korean troops. One purpose of the drills is to prepare South Korea to eventually take over wartime control of its own military. The United States has held authority over the country’s military in case of war since the 1950s, as part of agreements signed after the Korean War.

Trump said his decision was based on the high cost of the exercises and his opinion that they sent an inappropriately hostile signal to North Korea. Trump said he had a good relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and the country had remained unthreatening and respectful during Trump’s time as president, he said. Trump also explained his decision saying that it was too late to withdraw from the exercises.

Trump also mentioned South Korea’s refusal to participate alongside the United States and Israel in their war with Iran, although he said it was somewhat unrelated to his reduction of joint exercises.

How did South Korea respond? Officials said the exercises were proceeding as planned and that they hadn’t received an official directive to make changes, according to The Korea Herald.

South Korea already independently scaled back parts of the joint drills, planning to conduct 14 field training exercises instead of the 17 conducted last year, according to The Korea Herald. The South Korean government said it did so to ease tensions with North Korea, after North Korea denounced the exercises and recently fired several short-range ballistic missiles.

Dig deeper: Read Christina Parks’ story on election-related protests in South Korea.