South Korea and the United States will cut their ongoing joint military exercises short by about half, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said on Wednesday, a move that North Korea has rejected as insufficient.<\/p>\n
The Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise, which began on Monday and was originally due to run until August 27, will now end on Friday at the request of the United States, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said.<\/p>\n
Seoul and Washington hold annual drills involving thousands of troops from both countries to strengthen their joint defence capabilities.<\/p>\n
North Korea’s state news agency KCNA had on Wednesday called the 11-day exercise the “most immediate and open threat” to North Korea and regional security, saying the drills were pushing tensions on the peninsula towards war.<\/p>\n
Pyongyang said the exercises were increasingly focused on improving the allies’ ability to fight an actual war and incorporated technologies including artificial intelligence, drones and cyber capabilities. Pyongyang would exercise its right to self-defence to “completely neutralize” what it called military threats until its adversaries abandoned efforts to alter the regional balance of power.<\/p>\n
The criticism comes days after US President Donald Trump ordered a substantial reduction in US participation in the drills, citing his “very good relationship” with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.<\/p>\n
Trump orders cuts to drills over ‘hostile’ signal<\/p>\n
“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.<\/p>\n
During a parliamentary session, South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun said the government had not been informed in advance about Trump’s Truth Social message and that neither South Korean nor US officials had known what he was going to post.<\/p>\n
According to South Korea’s Yonhap news agency, this year’s exercise was supposed to include 14 field drills, three fewer than last year. The agency said the reduction followed efforts by South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, who, like Trump, is seeking diplomatic engagement with Kim.<\/p>\n
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who is currently visiting the South Korean capital, Seoul, spoke of a necessary change of direction in US policy. “The US must change its long-standing hostile policy towards North Korea,” Wang said, according to Yonhap.<\/p>\n
He said China is prepared to play a constructive role in bringing about peace on the Korean Peninsula, without specifying any concrete measures.<\/p>\n
North Korea not satisfied<\/p>\n
North Korea rejected the shortening of the military exercises, with Kim’s sister, Kim Yo Jong, saying a reduction in the scale and duration of the exercises would do nothing to alter their “provocative and offensive nature,” according to KCNA. She said they were still hostile military exercises directed against North Korea.<\/p>\n
North Korea has repeatedly denounced US-South Korean military exercises as hostile, while the countries say the drills are necessary to maintain military readiness.<\/p>\n
A meeting between Trump and Kim Jong Un?<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing unnamed US officials, that Trump wants to meet Kim Jong Un this year. While no plans have been made officially, the two leaders could meet when global leaders gather in the Chinese city of Shenzhen for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, scheduled for November 18-19.<\/p>\n
Kim Yo Jong said she was unaware of any communication between the leaders of North Korea and the US. However, she acknowledged that her brother harbours “fond memories” of Trump and said the two continue to enjoy a good relationship.<\/p>\n
Trump met Kim Jong Un on several occasions during his first term in office. After an initial summit in Singapore in 2018, a second meeting between the two leaders in Hanoi the following year ended in a row over negotiations on North Korea’s nuclear disarmament. The North Korean leader left the meeting before the official programme had concluded.<\/p>\n
Under Kim Jong Un’s leadership, Pyongyang has expanded its nuclear weapons and missile programmes and has supported Russia’s war in Ukraine with ammunition and thousands of troops.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"South Korea and the United States will cut their ongoing joint military exercises short by about half, South…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":125205,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[60238,58284,15102,141,2371,31,37698,34,177,2642,33],"class_list":["post-125204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-south-korea","tag-drills","tag-exercise","tag-joint-chiefs-of-staff","tag-kim-jong-un","tag-kim-yo-jong","tag-korea","tag-military-exercises","tag-north-korea","tag-north-korean-leader","tag-president-donald-trump","tag-south-korea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125204\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}