South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun said Wednesday that Seoul was given no notice before President Donald Trump announced that he would be scaling back joint military operations between the two countries.
“Neither our government nor U.S. officials knew what President Trump wrote on his Truth Social," Cho told the National Assembly Committee on Foreign Affairs and Unification. "We were not notified in advance.”
Cho added, however, that Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-back was in “close consultation” with his U.S. counterparts regarding the reductions to South Korea-U.S. military exercises.
Read More: Trump’s South Korea Shift Tests a Key U.S. Alliance
Trump on Sunday announced in a Truth Social post that he had instructed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to “substantially reduce” joint military exercises with South Korea, citing the country’s refusal to participate in the U.S.-Israel war against Iran and his “very good relationship” with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Trump called the joint exercises “costly” and “totally inappropriate and hostile” to North Korea, which he said has been “unthreatening and respectful” throughout his presidency.
Both the Pentagon and South Korea have confirmed that joint operations have been reduced following Trump’s announcement.
A Defense Department official tells TIME that the U.S. has “substantially reduced” Exercise Ulchi Freedom Shield—an annual, large-scale training dating back roughly 50 years that combines multiple sectors of the military designed to prepare a U.S.-Korean joint response to international threats. The Ulchi exercise began on Monday and was supposed to last for 11 days, but will now end on Aug. 21, one week earlier than originally scheduled, the official says.
“Associated live-training events have been reduced, with certain events canceled or converted to simulations,” the official adds, noting that “training that enhances tactical capability” will continue. “These adjustments preserve essential readiness and training objectives. There will be no degradation to U.S. training objectives.”
South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff also confirmed that it had agreed to the reductions at the request of the U.S.
North Korea has largely shrugged off the reductions, saying that they don’t change the geopolitical posture of either the U.S. or South Korea towards itself.
"We are paying greater attention to the reality that joint military exercises between the U.S. and South Korea have continued and are still ongoing, and this is an unmistakable expression of hostility toward North Korea," Kim Yo Jong, the sister of the country’s leader, said on Wednesday, according to the state-run Korean Central News Agency. She added that Pyongyang had “no interest whatsoever" in Trump’s announcement and that “reducing the scale or duration of the drills does not change the provocative and aggressive nature of the military exercises.”
Trump said in the Oval Office on Monday, following his order to the Pentagon, that he had spoken with Kim Jong Un about a scheduled conversation. Kim Yo Jong said on Wednesday, however, that she was "unaware" and knew “absolutely nothing” about recent communication between Trump and Kim Jong Un.
On Wednesday, Trump said that he would meet with Kim Jong Un this year, but did not elaborate further.
“He has 57 very powerful nuclear weapons,” Trump said to reporters on the White House grounds, referring to North Korea’s arsenal. “Should have never allowed it to happen, they should never have allowed it. If I were president, I never would have allowed it.”
Trump, who met Kim Jong Un face-to-face three times during his first term, has maintained a friendly relationship with the North Korean leader throughout his presidencies. "I have a great relationship with Kim Jong Un,” Trump said in August of last year. “I hope it stays that way, I think it will. I have a very good relationship. I understand him.”
Amid his cordial relations with Kim Jong Un, Trump has repeatedly demanded that North Korea suspend its nuclear arms program, a request Pyongyang has said is off the table. Trump seems determined to negotiate towards that goal with the North Korean leader.
The President’s recent move to halt joint exercises resembles one he made in his first term. Following a summit in Singapore in 2018 during which Trump met with Kim Jong Un, making him the first sitting president to hold a summit with a North Korean leader, Trump suspended the Ulchi exercise with South Korea in the name of diplomacy with North Korea.
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