Bahk Eun-ji has been with The Korea Times since 2012, building a career across multiple desks. She began at the Business Desk, where she conducted in-depth interviews with key figures in Korea's corporate world. Later, she moved to the Politics & City Desk, focusing on education policy and social affairs. She later served as team leader of the digital content team, leading curation efforts on the newspaper’s homepage and reshaping print stories for social media audiences to enhance digital reach. Now back on the Politics Desk, she covers the National Assembly and the Ministry of National Defense, with a renewed focus on political developments.
Trump seeks to scale down joint drills in bid to lure Kim back to talks, experts say
Military vehicles are parked at a U.S. military base in Dongducheon, Gyeonggi Province, Monday, the first day of the Ulchi Freedom Shield (UFS) exercise. U.S. President Donald Trump said Sunday that he had instructed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to substantially reduce the scale of joint military exercises with South Korea. Newsis
By Bahk Eun-ji
Pyongyang unlikely to respond until exercises are actually reduced
U.S. President Donald Trump’s order to scale back joint military exercises with South Korea could be an attempt to bring North Korean leader Kim Jong-un back to the negotiating table, experts said Monday.
Trump said Sunday that the exercises were costly and sent an "inappropriate and hostile signal" to North Korea, citing his "very good relationship" with Kim and claiming Pyongyang "has been unthreatening and respectful" during his time in office. Noting that it was too late to cancel Ulchi Freedom Shield (UFS) outright since it was already scheduled to begin Monday, he said he had instructed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to "substantially reduce" the annual exercise. The remarks came a day after Trump posted a photo of his 2019 meeting with Kim at Panmunjeom in the Joint Security Area within the Demilitarized Zone, writing that the two leaders "get along GREAT."
Cheong Wa Dae responded by saying South Korea and the U.S. "have closely coordinated on maintaining a solid combined defense posture and on joint exercises and training."
"We hope that the friendly relationship between the U.S. and North Korean leaders will lead to meaningful dialogue between Washington and Pyongyang, opening discussions that advance peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula," a Cheong Wa Dae official said. "We will make the necessary diplomatic efforts as a 'pacemaker,' in close coordination with the United States."
This appears to be the first time since the start of his second term that Trump has ordered joint exercises scaled back. During his first term, after his June 2018 summit with Kim in Singapore, he referred to joint military exercises as "war games," saying they were provocative, inappropriate and expensive, resulting in some drills being suspended or scaled down.
Unlike in 2018, the order comes before any formal talks with Pyongyang have begun, raising the possibility that Trump is using the scaling back of UFS to draw Kim back to the negotiating table.
Yu Ji-hoon, a research fellow at the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses, said Trump appears to be seeking an early opening for talks that could eventually lead to another summit with Kim.
“Bringing this up just before the joint exercise suggests there is a purpose behind it,” Yu said. “I think Trump has a strong personal desire to quickly create an opportunity for talks with North Korea and possibly another summit, and present that as a foreign policy achievement.”
Yu said Trump views his meetings with Kim during his first term as part of his foreign policy record and may see renewed engagement with the North Korean leader as a potential achievement ahead of the U.S. midterm elections.
Yang Moo-jin, chair professor at the University of North Korean Studies, described Trump’s order as “impulsive in form, but calculated in substance.”
Yang said Trump may have had Seoul in mind as well as Pyongyang. In the same social media post, Trump complained that South Korea had declined his request to join U.S. efforts to denuclearize Iran, calling this a "somewhat unrelated" matter and adding a question mark in parentheses. Yang said the reference showed Trump linking economic and security issues to pressure Seoul.
U.S. President Donald Trump, left, prepares to shake hands with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at the border village of Panmunjeom in the Demilitarized Zone, June 30, 2019. AP-Yonhap
Despite Trump’s announcement, the UFS exercise began Monday as scheduled.
As of Monday, an official from the defense ministry said that the UFS was proceeding according to its originally planned schedule and scale, and that Seoul had not received a request from Washington to reduce the exercise following Trump’s remarks.
The allies had already planned to conduct 14 field training drills during this year's UFS, down from 22 during the same period last year.
The official added that some of the planned drills could still be adjusted if Washington formally requests changes.
A presidential office official said South Korea and the U.S. "have closely coordinated on maintaining a solid combined defense posture and on joint exercises and training," adding that "the two sides will continue to coordinate on related details going forward."
The official also said Seoul hopes the friendly relationship between the U.S. and North Korean leaders "can lead to meaningful dialogue between Washington and Pyongyang, opening discussions that advance peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula." To that end, the official said, the government "will make the necessary diplomatic efforts as a pacemaker, in close coordination with the United States."
Experts, however, cautioned against expecting an immediate response from Pyongyang.
Yu said North Korea, which has long objected to the joint exercise, would likely welcome Trump’s message. But Pyongyang is likely to watch whether the U.S. actually scales back this year's UFS before deciding how to respond, he said.
Yang also expected North Korea to first gauge Trump’s intentions. Pyongyang could eventually demand a complete halt to joint military exercises and seek nuclear arms reduction talks on the condition that it be recognized as a nuclear weapons state, he said.
The possibility that joint exercises could again become part of U.S.-North Korea bargaining poses a challenge for Seoul.
Yu said it was premature to speak of South Korea being sidelined, but warned that North Korea could increasingly prefer direct negotiations with Washington if U.S.-North Korea relations advance faster than inter-Korean ties.
In that case, issues directly affecting Korea’s security, including joint exercises, sanctions and denuclearization, could be discussed without sufficient prior coordination with Seoul.