US President Trump said on the 16th that he has requested the Department of Defense to drastically reduce the scale of joint military exercises between the United States and South Korea.
The South Korean and US militaries plan to hold the large-scale "Ulchi Freedom Shield" joint exercise from the 17th to the 27th.
Trump wrote on social media that these drills are "hugely expensive," with a large portion of the costs borne by the US, and at the same time send "completely inappropriate and hostile signals" to North Korea.
Trump stated that, considering his "very good relationship" with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, he is "displeased that the US agreed long ago to participate in joint military drills with South Korea".
South Korea Refuses to Join US in Promoting 'Denuclearization of Iran'
He said that since it is now too late to cancel the drills, he has instructed the Defense Department to "greatly reduce" the scale of the US-South Korea joint military exercises.
At the end of his post, Trump pointed out that he recently asked South Korea to work with the US to promote the "denuclearization of Iran," but was rejected by the South Korean side.
Previously, North Korea's Foreign Ministry stated that the essence of the US-South Korea joint exercises is a rehearsal for an aggressive war.
In fact, this is not the first time Trump has held a negative attitude toward US-South Korea military exercises. In his first term in 2018, he called off the drills after direct talks with Kim Jong-un.
The "Ulchi Freedom Shield" is conducted based on the 1953 US-South Korea Mutual Defense Treaty and is the two countries' annual defense exercise. The main unit responsible for ground operations under the United States Forces Korea and the US-South Korea Combined Forces Command, the "US 8th Army," conducts the exercise together with South Korean troops.