By abruptly curtailing military exercises with South Korea, US President Donald Trump risks going against his stated goal of making South Korea take more responsibility for its own defense.
The annual Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise, which involves tens of thousands of troops, was cut in half at the request of the U.S. government after President Trump said over the weekend that the exercise would antagonize his friend, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, while costing the United States too much.
These exercises “send a completely inappropriate and hostile signal,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Sunday, in what appeared to be an attempt to appease the reclusive Kim, who Trump is eager to reunite with.
The “hostile” part is difficult to reconcile with the defensive nature of the exercise, which is strikingly similar to how North Korea’s state media described the exercise. The United States and South Korea have repeatedly said their agreement is about deterrence and defense, not about seizing territory north of the demilitarized zone that has divided Korea since the 1953 armistice.
Analysts say the military exercises include training to give South Korea something it hasn’t had since the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950: wartime operational control of the combined forces on the peninsula.
That is an important goal for both countries. If South Korea shows it can take on that burden, the United States could take a backseat in future conflicts, providing some firepower while allowing South Korea to shoulder most of the defense responsibilities and costs.
The current system of control was created shortly after the outbreak of the Korean War when South Korea transferred command of its military to Washington, which was far better equipped and experienced and better suited to deal with the communist threat along the dividing line.
Command of the South Korean military was taken over by United Nations forces, and in 1978 by Combined Forces Command (CFC), always commanded by a US general.
The CFC gave Seoul peacetime operational control of the South Korean military in 1994, but wartime control remains in Washington. Since then, calls for change and the timeline for achieving it have been postponed many times, leaving behind a status quo that is no longer necessary.
In recent years, South Korea has emerged as a world-class military power. Although it is not at the level of the United States or China, it certainly has the ability to protect itself from North Korea.
Citing that capability, South Korean President Lee Jae-myung on Tuesday sought to use the start of this year’s exercises to bring new momentum to his 2025 campaign promise to return wartime operational control to South Korean hands by 2030.
“In terms of weapons systems and military power, our country’s self-defense capabilities are already among the top in the world. It is no exaggeration to say that our capabilities are more than sufficient,” Li said on Tuesday.
But President Trump threw a spanner into the problem.
The plan was to use the Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise to evaluate the system so that South Korea could take over wartime operational control, wrote Yoo Ji-hoon, a researcher at the Korea Institute for Defense Analysis.
“Major last-minute changes could therefore have implications beyond preparation and complicate an alliance project that Washington itself has long encouraged,” Yu wrote.
“Reducing (the exercise), especially without prior consultation, makes it difficult to implement burden sharing, even if the US government is demanding more of it,” he said.
Earlier this year, Lee Jeong-gyu, a visiting researcher at South Korea’s Sejong Institute, wrote about building momentum for further control of South Korea, which was spelled out in black and white in the U.S. national defense strategy announced in January.
The document “clearly demonstrates the Alliance’s intention to strengthen burden sharing and is expected to serve as a basis for accelerating the terms of the (operational control) transfer,” Lee wrote.
President Trump says the US will reduce joint military exercises with South Korea
President Trump’s deference to North Korea’s Kim Jong Un has led him to prioritize America’s nuclear-armed adversary over treaty allies who want to do as he demands.
That leaves the U.S. military tied to its responsibilities on the peninsula at a time when it is desperately needed in places like Iran and in possible future conflicts in Asia and around the world. And that means South Korea’s cost savings cannot be factored into future defense budgets, given the ever-increasing demand for new weapons.
South Korea has long been a close ally of the United States. Since the end of the Korean War, the two countries have had a mutual defense treaty aimed primarily at protecting South Korea from North Korea.
But Trump’s much-touted personal relationship with North Korea’s Kim Jong-un, which has vastly expanded its military since Trump’s first term and is now believed to have dozens of nuclear warheads, has put their long-standing partnership to the test.
Meanwhile, North Korea has not responded positively to President Trump’s new olive branch.
On Wednesday morning, before news of the reduction in military drills broke, North Korean state media KCNA said the exercises were the “most immediate and open threat” to North Korea and regional security.
President Trump’s sudden involvement appears to be forcing a broader rethink beyond just the exercises, with South Korean military leaders saying on Wednesday that the two countries need to discuss their “future joint defense posture.”
Analysts said it was another own goal for Trump, who is already weakened on the world stage by his ongoing war with Iran.
Leif Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul, said, “While the cost savings from reducing exercises are modest, the diplomatic benefits in relations with North Korea are questionable.”
It is unclear what President Trump hopes to achieve by reuniting with Kim. In his first term, he failed to strongly persuade the North Korean leader to abandon his nuclear ambitions, which have only grown. Meanwhile, Kim has moved closer to Russia and China.
President Trump may consider it a “respect, not a threat” to him, but in the nearly 10 years since Trump first took office, North Korea has become a far more powerful military power.
“Reducing (training) could damage alliance coordination, slow the process by which South Korea takes greater responsibility for its own defense, and weaken deterrence against a potential conflict in Asia,” Easley said.
