He may be trying to keep his friends close and his enemies closer, but Donald Trump’s latest round of social media diplomacy is expected to embolden America’s foes.
In a post on his Truth Social platform on Sunday, the US President boasted of his “very good relationship” with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un while ordering the Pentagon to scale back joint military exercises with long-standing American ally South Korea.
Trump’s comments indicated that the order to reduce US involvement in training drills due to start this week was related to not only cost, but also South Korea’s reluctance to join the US “denuclearisation of the Islamic Republic of Iran” and his concern that the exercises “send a signal that is totally inappropriate and hostile” to the North Korean regime.
“It is undeniably a boon for North Korea,” Christian Le Miere, honorary fellow at the Council on Geostrategy think tank and expert on Indo-Pacific security, told The i Paper. “Exercises build readiness, interoperability and understanding between allies and make it easier to fight. They also act as a significant signal and deterrent to rivals.”
Le Miere noted that the move to scale back support for South Korea comes at a time when the US military is dangerously stretched and risks indicating – not only to North Korea, but also to Russia and China – that American power in the Pacific is on the wane.
“It is a clear signal to China that if Beijing were to launch an operation on Taiwan, it would understand that a simultaneous crisis or conflict in another theatre that dragged in US forces and attention would weaken US presence in Asia,” he said.
Trump’s social media post follows American forces re-deploying missile defence interceptors from South Korea to the Middle East earlier this year, and the withdrawal of the last American aircraft carrier in the region to focus on operations against Iran.
The American aircraft carrier the USS George Washington has been redeployed from East Asia to support operations against Iran as US forces manage multiple military flash points. (Photo by Nhac Nguyen/ AFP via Getty Images)“The carrier gap is likely temporary, but it certainly highlights how the US is unable to maintain high-tempo operations in multiple theatres for a prolonged period of time,” added Le Miere.
Kim has been a steadfast ally of Russia’s Vladimir Putin, supplying the Russian military with millions of artillery and mortar rounds, ballistic missiles, and thousands of troops in support of Putin’s war with Ukraine. The North Korean leader reaffirmed his deep ties with Russia in a message to Putin this weekend.
“If the US/South Korea alliance weakens or frays, China, Russia, and North Korea will all be rubbing their hands,” said Edward Howell, lecturer in international relations at the University of Oxford and author of A New Axis of Upheaval: North Korea, Russia, China, Iran.
Howell told The i Paper that “North Korea is at the moment at its most emboldened point ever in history,” arguing that Kim has been the most successful North Korean leader at getting what he wants from Russia and China as well as Trump.
What Kim really wants, though, is an acknowledgement from the US that it is a legitimate nuclear power, Howell believes.
“If the US accepts North Korea as a nuclear weapons state, North Korea will say, well, get rid of sanctions, because sanctions are tied to the country’s nuclear programme. Then North Korea will say, get rid of the 28,500 troops stationed in South Korea, we don’t need them. Let’s have a peace treaty to end the Korean War. It’s a very dangerous path, but that’s what North Korea wants,” he said.
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