{"id":220950,"date":"2026-08-17T13:14:18","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T13:14:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/trump-orders-military-to-substantially-reduce-joint-exercises-with-south-korea-nbc-news\/"},"modified":"2026-08-17T13:14:18","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T13:14:18","slug":"trump-orders-military-to-substantially-reduce-joint-exercises-with-south-korea-nbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/trump-orders-military-to-substantially-reduce-joint-exercises-with-south-korea-nbc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump orders military to \u2018substantially reduce\u2019 joint exercises with South Korea – NBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"

news Alerts
There are no new alerts at this time
President Donald Trump<\/a> said Sunday that he has directed the Defense Department to scale down joint military exercises with South Korea<\/a>, citing the U.S. ally\u2019s refusal to join the war in Iran<\/a> and his \u201cvery good\u201d relationship with North Korea\u2019s Kim Jong Un<\/a>.
Trump said the large, annual military drills sent a \u201csignal that is totally inappropriate and hostile\u201d to North Korea<\/a>, a nuclear-armed state with which the U.S. has no formal diplomatic ties but which Trump says has been \u201cunthreatening and respectful\u201d as long as he has been president.
\u201cBased on the fact that it is too late to cancel, I have instructed Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, to substantially reduce the Joint Military Exercises!\u201d Trump wrote on social media. His announcement came just hours before the drills were set to start.
Kim Jong Un rides a tank driven by his teenage daughter
Trump also mentioned South Korea\u2019s refusal to join the Iran war.
\u201cWhile 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, \u2018No thanks!\u2019\u201d Trump wrote.
It was not immediately clear what a scaled-down version of the training would look like. The South Korean defense ministry said Monday that the drills, known as Ulchi Freedom Shield and scheduled to last until Aug. 27, were \u201cproceeding as planned.\u201d
In a statement on Monday, the office of South Korean President Lee Jae Myung<\/a> said the U.S. and South Korea had \u201cmaintained close coordination\u201d on joint exercises and training and would continue to do so.
Like Trump, Lee has expressed support for the resumption of talks with North Korea, which remains technically at war with South Korea after the Korean War ended in 1953 with an armistice rather than a peace treaty.
The government \u201chopes that the friendly relationship between the leaders of the United States and North Korea will lead to meaningful U.S.-North Korea dialogue, thereby opening discussions aimed at advancing peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula,\u201d Lee\u2019s office said. \u201cTo this end, the government will make the necessary diplomatic efforts as a \u2018pace-setter,\u2019 in close coordination with the United States.\u201d
Lee\u2019s office said the South Korean government had \u201cactively participated\u201d in international talks aimed at reaching a ceasefire in Iran and restoring freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz<\/a> and that it was also in close consultation with the U.S. \u201cregarding practical and military contributions.\u201d
According to U.S. Forces Korea<\/a>, the military exercises are meant to build understanding<\/a> among several agencies to ensure \u201ctheir ability to fortify the combined defense posture and enhance Alliance response capabilities against a spectrum of security threats.\u201d North Korea routinely criticizes the annual drills as a \u201cwar rehearsal,\u201d which the U.S. and its allies deny, and threatens to retaliate.
South Korea\u2019s embassy in Washington and U.S. Forces Korea did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Trump\u2019s call to curtail the exercises was criticized by lawmakers such as Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., who said they help the U.S. better defend South Korea against the North.
\u201cHollowing out these joint exercises is shortsighted and a mistake,\u201d he said in a post on X<\/a>.
The exercises \u201care essential for military forces to be ready and capable of doing their jobs,\u201d said Leif-Eric Easley, professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul.
\u201cScaling them back can damage alliance coordination, slow the process of South Korea taking on greater responsibility for its own defense, and weaken deterrence against possible conflicts in Asia,\u201d he said in emailed comments.
It is also unlikely to win Trump a meeting with Kim, who has shown no interest in resuming talks after their earlier diplomatic efforts collapsed in 2019. Since then, Kim has advanced his nuclear and missile programs and built ties with Russia by providing troops and weapons for its war on Ukraine<\/a>.
\u201cTrump\u2019s recent social media posts about Kim Jong Un suggest a willingness to re-engage, but North Korea is busy profiting from Russia\u2019s war against Ukraine while modernizing its own military,\u201d Easley said.
Trump\u2019s announcement comes days after North Korea launched a ballistic missile<\/a> toward the sea, conducting weapons testing in possible protest of the upcoming U.S.-South Korea military drills.
It also comes a day after the U.S. pulled its last aircraft carrier<\/a> in Asia, as the USS George Washington was sent to replace the USS Abraham Lincoln \u2014\u00a0which has drawn scrutiny over conditions<\/a> on board \u2014 in the Persian Gulf.
Raquel Coronell Uribe is a politics reporter for NBC News.
Stella Kim is an NBC News freelance producer based in Seoul.
© 2026 NBCUniversal Media, LLC<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

news AlertsThere are no new alerts at this timePresident Donald Trump said Sunday that he has directed the Defense Department to scale down joint military exercises with South Korea, citing the U.S. ally\u2019s refusal to join the war in Iran and his \u201cvery good\u201d relationship with North Korea\u2019s Kim Jong Un.Trump said the large, annual […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":220951,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-220950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220950\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/220951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}