Donald Trump tries to coax North Korea to give up nukes as US ends key military drills
- South Korea and the US are eliminating their massive springtime military drills and replacing them with smaller exercises
- The decision comes days after the conclusion of US President Donald Trump’s second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Hanoi
US President Donald Trump said that North Korea does not have any economic future with nuclear weapons as the Pentagon confirmed the United States and South Korea had agreed to end joint large scale spring military exercises.
“North Korea has an incredible, brilliant economic future if they make a deal, but they don’t have any economic future if they have nuclear weapons,” Trump said at a Conservative Political Action Conference.
He added that the relationship with North Korea seemed to be “very, very strong”.
According to a statement, acting Pentagon Chief Patrick Shanahan spoke with his South Korea counterpart on Saturday and they agreed to adapt their training programmes.
The two “made clear that the Alliance decision to adapt our training programme reflected our desire to reduce tension and support our diplomatic efforts to achieve complete denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula in a final, fully verified manner,” the Pentagon said.
