Trump scaling down U.S.-South Korea drills risks more than just joint
SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA – AUGUST 7: (L to R) Col. Lee Sung-jun, public affairs director of South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff and Col. Ryan Donald, public affairs director of the United Nations Command (UNC), Combined Forces Command (CFC), and United States Forces Korea (USFK) bump fists during the press briefing for the Ulchi Freedom Shield 2025 exercise at the Defense Ministry on August 07, 2025 in Seoul, South Korea. The 11-day Freedom Shield is part of an annual combined training with troops from South Korea and the United States. (Photo by Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)
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President Donald Trump’s move to sharply curtail U.S.-South Korean military exercises will not only affect they countries’ combat readiness, but also undermine the credibility of American commitments to its alliances.
Lieutenant General Chun In-Bum, former commander of the country’s Special Warfare Command, was blunt: “scaling back joint exercises like Ulchi Freedom Shield while North Korean troops gain combat experience in Ukraine creates a dangerous operational disconnect.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said earlier this month that Pyongyang was dispatching up to another 50,000 troops to aid Moscow, pointing to a gradual increase in North Korean troops deployed against Kyiv.
The joint Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise began on Aug. 17 will now end on Friday, ahead of the original schedule through Aug. 27.
That revision comes after Trump ordered Defence Secetary Pete Hegseth to “substantially reduce” joint drills with Seoul so as to not “send a signal that is totally inappropriate and hostile” to North Korea, a move that is said to have caught Seoul off guard.
South Korean and US soldiers pose for photos after their joint live fire exercise at a military training field in Pocheon on March 14, 2024 as part of the annual Freedom Shield joint military exercise between South Korea and the United States. (Photo by JUNG YEON-JE / POOL / AFP) (Photo by JUNG YEON-JE/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
Jung Yeon-je | Afp | Getty Images
Chun said Pyongyang’s troops were refining modern tactics, including drone warfare, electronic warfare, and artillery integration, under actual battle conditions, and the U.S.- South Korea alliance relies on major exercises to stress test its systems and adapt to these evolving threats.
“Restricting readiness testing for political gestures weakens joint counter-measures and undermines deterrence precisely as the adversary’s battlefield proficiency expands,” he said.
U.S. official, however, told Reuters that scaled-back drills would still preserve essential readiness and training objectives, with no degradation to American training goals.
Credibility in question
While the direct impact would be a reduction in combat readiness in the alliance’s forces, the move by Trump will also start to raise questions about the credibility of Washington’s commitment to alliances, experts said.
[The move] significantly undermines…
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