Annual war games between South Korea and the United States will end nearly a week earlier than planned, Seoul’s military said Wednesday, after US President Donald Trump ordered the “inappropriate and hostile” drills scaled back.
Trump said on Sunday that he had ordered the Pentagon to curtail the annual Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises, a day before they got underway. Hours later, Seoul’s military said the drills would wrap up on Friday, not on August 27 as originally planned. The United States stations about 28,500 troops in South Korea to bolster the country’s defences, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War that ended with an armistice rather than a peace treaty.
He cited his good relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and said the manouevres, designed to prepare for a possible attack by Pyongyang, were hostile towards a country that had been respectful to him. “We have decided to adjust the UFS exercise period to run from the 17th to the 21st,” South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement. Seoul’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”. Japan’s defence minister underlined the “critical” importance of security cooperation with the United States and South Korea on Tuesday.
