Trump directs Hegseth to scale back joint military exercises with South Korea

President Donald Trump directed the Pentagon on Sunday to substantially scale back planned joint military exercises with South Korea, saying that South Korea declined to help with denuclearizing Iran. “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,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, while emphasizing his “very good relationship” with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The move directing Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth — who in May praised South Korean leaders for their commitment to “alliance burden-sharing” in defense of the Korean Peninsula — to scale back the plans comes just a day before the 11 days of exercises were set to start on Monday, part of an annual practice to deter threats from North Korea. Trump also sought to end the exercises during his first administration, similarly arguing at the time that doing so “will save us a tremendous amount of money.” North Korea launched its latest round of ballistic missile tests just last week, seen in part as a response to the announcement of the U.S. and South Korea’s planned military exercises. The U.S. and South Korea have held joint military exercises for more than 70 years. This year’s iteration, termed Ulchi Freedom Shield, was expected to involve about 18,000 South Korean troops and a sizable portion of the 28,500 American troops stationed in the country. Pentagon leaders are considering plans to withdraw about 4,500 troops from South Korea, to be redeployed elsewhere in the Indo-Pacific region. Congress has generally opposed the idea, including language in last year’s national defense authorization act to prevent the administration from reducing the American footprint there below the 28,500 level.