Trump’s vow to end South Korea military drills and pull out troops confounds Seoul and contradicts Pentagon stance
US command in South Korea and Seoul’s presidential office say they were not told of any change in planned war games, while Trump’s remarks about pulling out troops contradict what Secretary of Defence James Mattis said on Monday
US President Donald Trump’s abrupt announcement in Singapore on Tuesday that he will suspend US military drills in South Korea appeared to catch both the Pentagon and the Seoul government flat-footed, and it contradicted a pillar of US Defence Secretary James Mattis’s campaign to make US troops more combat-ready.
During a news conference following his summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, Trump pushed his unconventional approach even further by calling annual US-South Korean military exercises “provocative”.
He also said he’d like to remove all 28,500 US troops stationed in the South, though he made clear this was an option for future consideration, not a part of current negotiations.
The US, which has kept combat troops on the Korean peninsula since a 1950 surprise attack by the North started the Korean war, has drilled them for years in a variety of exercises intended to sharpen skills and test their ability to operate effectively with their South Korean partners.
The next scheduled major exercise, known as Ulchi Freedom Guardian and involving tens of thousands of troops, would normally be held in August.