Trump orders cuts to US-South Korea drills, cites Kim ties

North Korea, which has long condemned the exercises as preparations for invasion, denounced the scheduled drills last week as a provocation that would raise tensions in the region. Pyongyang often responds to allied exercises with weapons tests. South Korea's military said Wednesday that North Korea fired a ballistic missile toward the East Sea, less than a week after a similar launch.

Trump's announcement drew criticism from opposition politicians and defense analysts.

Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly, a former Navy pilot, noted that North and South Korea are still technically at war. "Our ability to help defend our ally against the North Koreans is because our forces are well trained and able to coordinate with the South Koreans," Kelly wrote on X. "Hollowing out these joint exercises is shortsighted and a mistake."

Rear Adm. (Ret.) Mark Montgomery, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, questioned the move. "Watering down U.S.-South Korea military exercises is a risky move that lowers coalition readiness and puts U.S. forces at risk with no real tangible benefit to the United States," Montgomery told UPI. "Kim Jong Un is not America's friend, he cannot be reasoned with, and he won't give up his nuclear weapons."

David Maxwell, executive director of the Korea Regional Review, wrote in a commentary that Kim wants the exercises reduced. Maxwell argued Kim wants to weaken allied readiness, drive a wedge in the alliance and create conditions for a U.S. troop withdrawal, while still needing the exercises for domestic propaganda purposes.

Trump has called for suspending or scaling back exercises since his first term, when he pursued direct diplomacy with Kim that included summits in Singapore and Hanoi and a brief meeting at the DMZ. After the Singapore summit in 2018, Trump surprised observers by announcing a halt to what he called "provocative" joint military exercises. That year's Ulchi Freedom Guardian exercise was canceled, and several subsequent drills were reduced in scale.

Trump's announcement Sunday came one day after he posted a June 2019 photo of himself with Kim at the DMZ, writing that the two leaders "get along GREAT!" Trump has repeatedly expressed willingness to meet Kim during his second term, fueling speculation he may restart summit diplomacy.