{"id":125866,"date":"2026-08-20T04:42:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T04:42:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/125866\/"},"modified":"2026-08-20T04:42:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T04:42:17","slug":"us-drill-cuts-threaten-south-koreas-wartime-command-plans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/125866\/","title":{"rendered":"US drill cuts threaten South Korea\u2019s wartime command plans"},"content":{"rendered":"

South Korea<\/a>\u2019s push to regain wartime control of its military has been thrown into doubt after the United States<\/a> abruptly cut short a major joint exercise, scrapping plans for a simulated counteroffensive into North Korean territory and encirclement of Pyongyang.Defence analysts warn scaling back<\/a> the Ulchi Freedom Shield (UFS) exercise could weaken the allies\u2019 deterrence posture at a sensitive moment, even as Seoul seeks greater self-reliance in managing security on the Korean peninsula.US President Donald Trump<\/a> ordered the Pentagon on Monday to \u201csubstantially reduce\u201d the \u201ccostly\u201d drills, describing them as a \u201ctotally inappropriate and hostile\u201d signal to North Korea<\/a> while citing his \u201cvery good relationship\u201d with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The allies had initially planned for the UFS exercise, which began on Monday, to run until August 27. The second phase was reportedly set to include a simulated counteroffensive against North Korea, including the encirclement of its capital.<\/p>\n

\"USUS soldiers conduct a training exercise on a river in Yeoncheon, near the border between South and North Korea, on Tuesday. Photo: AP<\/p>\n

But the exercise will now end on Friday \u2013 marking the first time a theatre-level US-South Korea exercise has been cut short or scaled back while already under way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"South Korea\u2019s push to regain wartime control of its military has been thrown into doubt after the United…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":125867,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1329,5072,23642,114,141,31,31438,5280,146,34,129,33,116,57101,444,2161],"class_list":["post-125866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-south-korea","tag-ahn-gyu-back","tag-combined-forces-command","tag-doo-jin-ho","tag-iran","tag-kim-jong-un","tag-korea","tag-korea-research-institute-for-national-strategy","tag-korean-peninsula","tag-lee-jae-myung","tag-north-korea","tag-pyongyang","tag-south-korea","tag-strait-of-hormuz","tag-ulchi-freedom-shield","tag-united-states","tag-us-president-donald-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125866","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=125866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125866\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}