Trump wants to be friends with Kim - but South Korea could pay the price
Reuters Trump and Kim met at Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) in 2019 Jake Kwon Seoul correspondent South Korea's annual military exercises with the US come to an abrupt end on Friday. Ulchi Freedom Shield, which involves 18,000 South Korean troops and 11 other American ally nations, is being halted with only half of the scheduled programme complete - days after US President Donald Trump announced he had ordered the Pentagon to "substantially reduce" the drill.
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Key Facts
- Fact 1: Reuters Trump and Kim met at Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) in 2019 Jake Kwon Seoul correspondent South Korea's annual military exercises with the US come to an abrupt end on Friday.
- Fact 2: Ulchi Freedom Shield, which involves 18,000 South Korean troops and 11 other American ally nations, is being halted with only half of the scheduled programme complete - days after US President Donald Trump announced he had ordered the Pentagon to "substantially reduce" the drill.
- Fact 3: There is a fear that Trump may go further and draw down the 27,000 US troops stationed in South Korea or even abandon the longstanding policy of denuclearising the North - all without consulting its ally.
- Fact 4: Reuniting with the South had always been a key, if increasingly unrealistic, part of the North's ideology until Kim abandoned it in 2024.
Reuters Trump and Kim met at Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) in 2019 Jake Kwon Seoul correspondent South Korea's annual military exercises with the US come to an abrupt end on Friday. Ulchi Freedom Shield, which involves 18,000 South Korean troops and 11 other American ally nations, is being halted with only half of the scheduled programme complete - days after US President Donald Trump announced he had ordered the Pentagon to "substantially reduce" the drill.
This revelation by Trump, who called the exercise "inappropriate and hostile" towards North Korea and costly to the US, caught his allies by surprise. Seoul's Foreign Minister Cho Hyun tried to paint the decision as one of mutual agreement, but admitted officials did not know of Trump's intent to scale down the exercise in advance. The move will also have rattled the likes of Taiwan and Japan, which have long relied on US security guarantees in the region.
(Original synthesis pending human/AI review — generated by the stub provider by selecting real sentences from the source material, not by writing new analysis or commentary.)
Original source: BBC News World
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