President Trump Says South Korea Refused To Help With “Denuclearization” Of Iran – Instructs Pete Hegseth To Reduce Joint Military Exercises

On Saturday, Trump also shared an old photo of him posing with the North Korean leader on Truth Social, repeating his claim the two “get along great”, leading to speculation he would renew his attempt to have a summit with Kim.

Trump has previously suspended major US-South Korean military exercises in pursuit of diplomacy with Kim. After his first summit with the North Korean leader in 2018, that year’s Ulchi Freedom Guardian exercise was cancelled, while other drills were suspended or scaled back. The exercises were subsequently redesigned and resumed in modified forms and names.

Last week, South Korean and US military officials said they would incorporate into the drills lessons drawn from North Korean troops’ increasing battlefield experience in Ukraine, including new drone tactics.

North Korea has deepened military ties with Russia since the two countries signed a comprehensive strategic partnership pact in June 2024, seeing Pyongyang provide troops, artillery ammunition and ballistic missiles to support Moscow’s war in Ukraine.

At a joint briefing, Col Ryan Donald, public affairs director for the US-led commands in South Korea, said this year’s scenario would reflect “drones, GPS disruption [and] cyber attacks”, threats he linked directly to North Korean soldiers who have deployed and fought in Ukraine as part of Pyongyang’s military support for Russia.

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President Trump is ordering a major reduction in joint U.S.-South Korea military exercises, saying the drills are too costly and send a "totally inappropriate and hostile" signal to Kim Jong Un's North Korea.

The timing is striking: Trump's directive comes one day before the… pic.twitter.com/atF2HnvHuF

— Fox News (@FoxNews) August 17, 2026

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He has not met with Kim at all during his second term, but the two leaders met three times during his first term.

Trump previously made a comment that he wanted to suspend the military exercises in 2018 while at a summit with Kim in Singapore.

“We will be stopping the war games, which will save us a tremendous amount of money, unless and until we see the future negotiation is not going along like it should,” he said at the time.

North Korea reportedly fired ballistic missiles last week, which are being viewed as a protest to the upcoming joint military exercises.

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