Trump Orders Joint Drills With South Korea Cut, Citing His Relationship With Kim Jong Un

President Donald Trump directed Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to substantially reduce joint military exercises with South Korea, citing his relationship with the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Seoul's refusal to join the war against Iran. The instruction landed less than a day before Ulchi Freedom Shield 2026, the annual combined exercise, was scheduled to begin on August 17. Trump said the drills send a signal that is hostile toward North Korea, which he described as unthreatening and respectful during his time in office.

The exercise began on schedule despite the order. Ulchi Freedom Shield started on August 17 and is mobilising 21,000 troops, including 18,000 from South Korea, for eleven days of computer-simulated command-post operations and field training. The Pentagon gave no public account of which elements it had cut. Trump wrote on Truth Social that the drills were being scaled back rather than cancelled outright, saying it was too late to call them off entirely.

The Financial Times reported that the decision unsettled Seoul, where the exercises are treated as the practical core of the alliance rather than a symbolic event, and that it raised doubts about American resolve in Asia at a time when the Pentagon is pulling ships from the Indo-Pacific to the Middle East and the Iran war is drawing down weapons stockpiles. Reductions of the type ordered typically mean fewer sorties, fewer live-fire serials and smaller headquarters staffs.

The Russian state agency TASS reported that Trump published a photograph of Kim Jong Un in the context of proposed talks, showing the North Korean leader surrounded by military officers and, according to the agency's account, speaking with the American president by telephone. TASS presented the content of that call as a claim rather than a confirmed fact.

South Korea's president, Lee Jae Myung, said the exercises are defensive and not aimed at North Korea, but he also said Tuesday that maintaining peace is most important while the country must still prepare for a "worst-case scenario", and he called for faster progress on South Korea's nuclear-powered submarine programme. Seoul has not said publicly how far the American reduction itself will go. North Korean forces have gained combat experience alongside Russia in Ukraine and continue to expand their ballistic missile programme, which is the context in which South Korean planners read any thinning of the combined exercise schedule.