Full story
Drills cut over Iran
South Korea’s Foreign Minister Cho Hyun said on Wednesday that President Donald Trump’s order to curb joint military exercises appeared aimed in part at pressuring Seoul to support U.S. efforts in the Iran war, alongside other unresolved issues such as investment.
“Cho Hyun said on Wednesday that U.S. President Donald Trump's order to curb joint military drills appeared aimed in part at pressuring Seoul to support U.S. efforts in the Iran war”
Cho told lawmakers that “I think President Trump's message includes pressure over several pending issues concerning the South Korean government, as well as a message to North Korea and an intention by the United States to break a stalemate in the Iran war,” linking the drill changes to the Iran conflict.
South Korea and the United States announced on Wednesday they would shorten annual joint military exercises from 11 days to five and scale back some field training after Trump ordered a substantial reduction in U.S. participation.
South Korea’s Unification Minister Chung Dong-young said he believes Trump was moving closer to potentially arranging a new meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un by curtailing exercises that have long angered Pyongyang.
The adjustment followed Trump’s Sunday order to reduce the U.S. role in the drills, which he tied to his “very good relationship” with Kim Jong Un and to South Korea’s refusal to join the U.S. and Israel’s war on Iran.
Seoul says no notice
South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun told a parliamentary hearing on Wednesday that neither South Korean nor U.S. officials had been aware in advance of Trump’s order to scale back joint military drills.
Cho said, “Our government officials, of course, and the US government officials hadn’t known about it in advance,” when asked by a lawmaker whether Seoul had been informed about Trump’s plans.
The South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said the Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise, which began on August 17, would be cut from 11 days to five and end on August 21, after the adjustment was agreed at Washington’s suggestion.
A U.S. Department of Defense official told Reuters that the department had “substantially reduced” the exercise and associated live-training events, with some cancelled or switched to simulations.
North Korea condemned the drills on Wednesday as “most direct and overt threats” to North Korea and regional security, while Kim Yo Jong later said the “provocative, aggressive nature of the drills won’t change even though their duration and size were reduced.”
Alliance stakes and investment
The drill cuts also intersect with South Korea’s investment pledge, with Cho Hyun saying one potential source of friction was Seoul’s pledge to invest $350 billion in the United States under a trade deal signed last year.
““We could not move faster on the investment plan as we had to consider factors such as commercial viability and take legal procedures,””
Cho said, “We could not move faster on the investment plan as we had to consider factors such as commercial viability and take legal procedures,” while Reuters reported that Washington had sent Seoul a proposal outlining projects that could be considered.
South Korea’s presidential office had said on Tuesday the drills did not reflect “any intention to attack North Korea or escalate tensions on the Korean peninsula,” even as the exercises were scheduled to end around a week earlier than planned.
The Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise was designed to prepare for a possible attack by North Korea, with the second phase focused on counteroffensive operations from August 24 to 27 now understood to have been scrapped.
In the background of the Iran-linked pressure described by Cho, the sources also say the United States stations about 28,500 troops in South Korea, and Japan’s Defence Minister Shinjiro Koizumi said on Tuesday that cooperation among Japan, the United States and South Korea is “critical to the peace and stability of the region.”
