SEOUL—President Trump returned to an old playbook this weekend to break a yearslong stalemate with North Korea, ordering cuts to annual military exercises with South Korea that began Monday.
In 2018, Trump suspended the joint drills with South Korea during a summit with Kim as a concession to move forward in denuclearization talks. Because of the technology and equipment he’s gotten from Russia, “Kim Jong Un is more powerful now.
The South Korean government said it was cooperating with the U.S. on the drills and hoped that the “friendly relationship” between Trump and Kim would lead to meaningful dialogue. Kim says the U.S. must accept North Korea as a nuclear state before any dialogue begins. A reduction in joint drills would lower Washington’s ability to deter China and North Korea while failing to assure allies that the U.S. is a credible partner, said Mark Montgomery, a retired U.S. “This was a mistake in 2018 and it’s a bigger mistake in 2026,” said Montgomery, who is now a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies think tank.
With these gains under his belt, Kim has so far spurned all of Trump’s diplomatic overtures since the president returned to the White House. U.S. allies in Asia are already under pressure from the Trump administration to shoulder a greater share of the security burden . The annual joint exercises with South Korea, a display of Washington and Seoul’s military alliance, began without signs of any immediate cutbacks. Navy rear admiral. He scaled down other exercises the following year.
Since last year, South Korean President Lee Jae Myung has suggested scaling back the joint exercises to improve the chances for engagement with North Korea.
