US Army’s soldiers conduct a training exercise on a river in Yeoncheon, South Korea, near the border with North Korea. (AP photo)
The South Korean and U.S. militaries have agreed to shorten their drills at the U.S.’s request, South Korean officials said on Aug. 19, a move that reflected President Donald Trump’s hopes to reengage with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un but that could undermine U.S.-South Korean defense readiness.
Trump had ordered his Pentagon chief to substantially reduce the allies’ summertime Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises just before they began on Aug. 17 for an 11-day run. Trump cited what he said was a good relationship with Kim and South Korea’s refusal to support him over Iran.
South Korea’s military said in a statement the ongoing drills with the U.S. would end tomorrow, not on Aug. 27 as initially planned. It said the allies also agreed to downsize some joint field training exercises.
The statement said South Korea and the U.S. will discuss and carry out various steps to achieve objectives of their drills and establish combined defense postures.
Many experts say Trump’s move threatens to hurt the combined U.S.-South Korean defense posture and eventually weaken their decades-long alliance.
A reduction or suspension of military drills matters because military commanders change periodically. A one-year suspension of drills would mean commanders unfamiliar with the procedures of the drills would be taking part when they resume, according to Yang Uk, an analyst at Seoul’s Asan Institute for Policy Studies.
Ulchi Freedom Shield is largely a computer-simulated command post exercise meant to hone the allies’ ability to deal with potential North Korean aggression. The two countries usually hold a set of field training exercises during the command post exercise period.
The drills and a similar springtime exercise are a central pillar of the U.S.-South Korea alliance, which dates to the 1950-53 Korean War. But it’s also a long-running source of tensions with North Korea, which has denounced the exercises as a rehearsal for an invasion and responded with provocative missile tests. Days before this month’s drills began, North Korea launched two ballistic missiles into the sea.
Earlier on Aug. 19, North Korea’s state news agency KCNA published a commentary slamming the U.S.-South Korean military drills as “frantic” and “extremely dangerous” and vowing to completely frustrate its rivals’ hostilities.
Many experts said Kim, now emboldened by his advancing nuclear program and expanding military cooperation with Russia, won’t likely embrace Trump’s overture and return to talks anytime soon unless he’s promised bigger concessions.
In response to Trump’s previous outreach, Kim suggested last year that he can only return to talks if the U.S. drops its demand of North Korean denuclearization as a precondition for diplomacy.
