Summary The joint exercises with South Korea, called Ulchi Freedom Shield military drills, were set to begin Aug 17 and go for 10 days.
(Web Desk) - US President Donald Trump announced Sunday that the United States would reduce military exercises it conducts with key regional ally South Korea, citing his positive relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korea’s lack of assistance with Iran.
“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,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Trump went on to raise the Iran war and his request for South Korea to help.
“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!’” Trump wrote.
Trump has had a warm relationship with the North Korean leader despite it being a longtime adversary of the United States. Earlier this weekend, he posted a picture of himself and Kim, with the caption: “Despite the unfriendly look on this particular picture, there are many where we’re smiling, Kim Jong Un and I get along GREAT!”
The joint exercises with South Korea, called Ulchi Freedom Shield military drills, were set to begin Aug 17 and go for 10 days.
North Korea has long criticized such exercises, with its Central Military Commission calling trilateral exercises last year with Japan and South Korea “the most comprehensive and offensive war drill for aggression in terms of scale, content and nature” that has been conducted on the southern Korean Peninsula.
