President Donald Trump on Sunday, August 16, instructed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to “substantially reduce” the joint U.S.-South Korea military exercises that were due to begin the next morning. The annual drills, called Ulchi Freedom Shield, began Monday, August 17: South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff told Reuters the exercise began “as previously notified and scheduled,” and the country’s defense ministry said the same.
Key facts
- The order: President Trump told Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Sunday, August 16, to “substantially reduce” the Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises.
- Drills began as scheduled: South Korea says Ulchi Freedom Shield started Monday, August 17, “as previously notified and scheduled.”
- Scale: about 18,000 South Korean troops and roughly 70 personnel from other United Nations Command member states are taking part.
- Dates: the exercise runs from August 17 through August 27.
- Reasons Trump cited: the cost of the drills and South Korea’s refusal to join an Iran denuclearization push.
- A separate, unrelated change: on August 10, South Korea said this year’s cycle would include 14 combined field-training exercises at the battalion level or above, compared with 17 last year; its Joint Chiefs described the change as rescheduling across the year, not a scale-back.
Timeline
- Before the exercise — North Korea conducted at least two ballistic-missile launches.
- August 10 — South Korea announced this year’s cycle would include 14 combined field-training exercises at the battalion level or above, compared with 17 last year; its Joint Chiefs described the change as rescheduling across the year rather than a scale-back. Seoul said it was coordinated with the U.S. from the planning stage and unrelated to Trump’s later order.
- Second launch — The missile traveled more than 700 kilometers toward the Sea of Japan.
- August 13-14 — North Korea’s Foreign Ministry warns that the joint exercises are “a rehearsal for an aggressive war.”
- August 16 — Trump posts on Truth Social ordering Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to scale back Ulchi Freedom Shield.
- August 17 — Ulchi Freedom Shield begins as scheduled, according to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff; the exercise is set to run through August 27.
Why Trump ordered the change
Trump made the announcement in a post on Truth Social. He said the exercises are costly, with much of the expense paid by the United States, and argued that they “send a signal that is totally inappropriate and hostile” to North Korea, citing his relationship with Kim Jong Un. He described Kim’s government as having been “unthreatening and respectful” throughout his own presidency — his own characterization, not an independent assessment. He indicated it was too late to call off this year’s drills entirely, so he ordered them scaled back instead.
The Iran connection
Trump tied the decision partly to Iran. In his own words, he wrote that he had recently asked South Korea’s president, Lee Jae Myung, whether South Korea “would like to join us in the Denuclearization of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” and that the answer was “No thanks!” Outlets have since described that ask in conflicting ways, and Trump’s own quoted words don’t settle which description is accurate. He cited South Korea’s refusal as one of his reasons for cutting back the joint drills.
South Korea’s response
South Korea’s government response has been measured. The presidential office said it was “closely following” Trump’s message and would “continue to coordinate closely” with Washington, adding that it hoped his remarks could lead to “meaningful” dialogue between the U.S. and North Korea. As of Monday, South Korean military authorities said they were not aware of any specific request from Washington to change the scope of the exercise. The Pentagon declined to comment and referred questions to the White House, which did not immediately respond.
Inside the exercise
Ulchi Freedom Shield is an annual exercise both countries describe as defensive in nature. This year’s edition involves about 18,000 South Korean troops, along with roughly 70 personnel from other United Nations Command member states. It is scheduled to run from August 17 through August 27. Training has included joint operations, precision live-fire targeting, river-crossing drills, and scenarios for countering drones, GPS disruption and cyberattacks, though recent years have shifted more of the exercise toward computer-simulated scenarios.
A separate change from South Korea
Separately, and before Trump’s post, South Korea had already made a smaller change of its own that has nothing to do with his order: on August 10 — six days earlier — Seoul said this year’s cycle would include 14 combined field-training exercises at the battalion level or above, down from 17 last year. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff described that change as a rescheduling of drills across the year rather than a scale-back, and said it had been coordinated with the U.S. from the planning stage.
North Korea’s statements before the order
Trump’s description of North Korea as “unthreatening and respectful” sits alongside North Korea’s own public statements. Before Trump’s post, North Korea’s Foreign Ministry called the joint exercises “a rehearsal for an aggressive war” and said it would respond to what it called a new level of threat with “a new level of a deterrent,” invoking “overwhelming force.” North Korea also carried out at least two ballistic-missile launches in the weeks before the exercise; the second missile traveled more than 700 kilometers toward the Sea of Japan. No North Korean government reaction to Trump’s specific order has been reported.
Emma Chanlett-Avery of the Asia Society Policy Institute said Kim Jong Un “has little appetite for negotiations with Trump, given his increased leverage in recent years,” and raised concern about Trump calling North Korea non-threatening given its advancing nuclear capabilities and its partnership with Russia.
Criticism in Washington and Seoul
The decision drew criticism in Washington, while an opposition spokesperson in Seoul criticized the Lee Jae Myung administration’s handling of the alliance.
- In Washington, Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona, a former Navy pilot, called the move “shortsighted and a mistake,” writing that it risks “hollowing out these joint exercises.”
- Fellow Democrat Sen. Andy Kim of New Jersey focused on process, saying decisions about joint exercises “need to be made jointly — and not announced unilaterally by social media.”
- Republican Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska offered a similar assessment from across the aisle: “it takes a while to repair the unnecessary damage he creates with allies.”
- In Seoul, the pushback came from the opposition: People Power Party spokesperson Park Sung-hoon said the exercise beginning that day was “facing a security debacle” — criticism aimed at how the Lee Jae Myung administration has handled the alliance.
A pattern from Trump’s first term
This isn’t the first time Trump has moved to pull back joint exercises with South Korea. During his first term, the summer exercise then known as Ulchi Freedom Guardian — the direct predecessor of today’s Ulchi Freedom Shield — was suspended in 2018, reported at the time as the first such suspension in 28 years, after his summit with Kim Jong Un in Singapore, where he criticized the drills as provocative. The following year, two smaller exercises, Key Resolve and Foal Eagle, were folded into scaled-down drills as part of the same diplomatic push.
What happens next
For now, Ulchi Freedom Shield is underway as planned. Whether Trump’s order eventually changes what happens on the ground, and how North Korea responds to it specifically, remains to be seen. What Trump’s order actually changes about the exercise on the ground has not been detailed by any government so far.