Donald Trump said he had ordered the Pentagon to “substantially reduce” the joint military maneuvers starting today, Monday, in South Korea. In his message on social media, the U.S. president suggested that his decision was motivated by his frustration over the lack of South Korean support in his aggression against Iran.
Read more The gang of clandestine toilets already controls 34 illegal luxury tourist rooms in Barcelona
“Based on my very good relationship with Kim Jong Un, of North Korea, I am not satisfied with the fact that the United States agreed long ago to participate in joint military exercises with South Korea. These exercises are not only costly, as much of those costs are borne by the United States of America (as usual!), but they also send a totally inappropriate and hostile signal to a country that, since Donald J. Trump has been president, has not posed a threat and has shown respect,” the president said on the Truth network.
Trump assures that North Korea has not posed a threat to the U.S. and has shown respect
The annual Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises began this Monday and will last until August 27, with the presence of about 18,000 soldiers, both from the regular army of the Republic of Korea and from the U.S. troops stationed on the Korean peninsula since the end of World War II. However, the South Korean agency Yonhap had already announced that this edition would involve 14 battalions instead of the 17 from last year, due to Seoul’s desire to ingratiate itself with Pyongyang. The South Korean Ministry of Defense, in fact, has confirmed that the joint exercises will be carried out as planned.
This Saturday, August 15, precisely, the two Koreas celebrated the 81st anniversary of the end of Japanese rule with their respective Liberation Day. A day earlier, the official agency of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea harshly attacked the upcoming biennial U.S. maneuvers in South Korea. According to Pyongyang, this new edition of the summer exercises (there are others every spring) represents a qualitative leap, as they are aimed at a real offensive against the communist north.
South Korea, like many U.S. allies, has refused to get involved in the U.S. and Israel war against Iran, which began with airstrikes on February 28. In his post, Trump stated that “although it has little to do with it,” he recently asked the president of South Korea if he wanted to join the United States in the denuclearization of the Islamic Republic of Iran, to which, according to him, he replied: “No, thank you.”
Although the United States and South Korea have been conducting joint military exercises for decades, these were reduced during Trump’s first term, when he negotiated directly with Kim Jong Un in Singapore, Hanoi, and in the Demilitarized Zone between “the two Koreas.”
The cornerstone of the current disagreement with Seoul could be the current social-democratic government’s desire to regain command of the joint forces in the event of armed conflict. For decades, this role has been reserved for a U.S. officer (currently four-star General Xavier T. Brunson, commander of U.S. Forces Korea). Since assuming his post, Brunson has been doing everything possible to prevent any change, referring to Korea’s strategic value as “a dagger in the heart of Asia” and also as “a fixed aircraft carrier between China and Japan.”
Donald Trump is not only sensitive to the Pentagon’s considerations but also to those of evangelical churches, which constitute one of his main bases at home and which in South Korea mobilized in favor of the ousted president Yoon Suk Yeol, condemned for imposing martial law. Thus, for some fervently anti-communist pastors, the current president Lee Jae Myung is little less than the antichrist. The loudest is Pastor Son Hyu Bo, who was sentenced to five months in prison for dictating the vote of his church’s faithful and who was received by Trump in the Oval Office ten days ago.
Read more Hayden Panettiere, actress from series like «Heroes» and «Nashville,» dies at 36 years old
Likewise, the U.S. president’s announcement increases pressure in ongoing trade negotiations with South Korea. In exchange for a tariff increase below the initially announced bluff, Trump negotiated with Seoul – as with Tokyo – the obligation for several South Korean – and Japanese – multinationals to invest hundreds of billions of dollars in strategic projects on U.S. soil.
On the other hand, North Korea expressed its displeasure last Wednesday with the upcoming U.S. maneuvers by launching a missile over the Sea of Japan. Its list of grievances now includes the apparent Pentagon plan, leaked this month by NBC, to review U.S. nuclear doctrine. Thus, Washington would open the door to the use of short-range tactical nuclear weapons – shifting the risk to its Asian allies – while keeping strategic nuclear weapons deployed on its own territory in the background. When Deputy Secretary of Defense Elbridge Colby, currently touring Asia, was questioned about this, far from denying it, he said it is something being evaluated.
At the same time, Japan’s right-wing Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has hinted in recent months that Tokyo could reverse its historic ban on the deployment of U.S. nuclear weapons on its territory. A possibility she refused to rule out during her recent visit to Hiroshima. However, last Saturday, she finally chose not to attend the militarist Yasukuni Shrine, so as not to further deteriorate relations with China and Korea, unlike what she used to do before taking office.
In South Korea, nuclearization has also ceased to be a taboo. However, current president Lee Jae Myung prioritizes thawing relations with his northern compatriots, unlike his predecessor, Yoon Suk Yeol, currently imprisoned for his 2024 coup attempt.
Finally, it should be said that there is no data to corroborate the supposed good relationship that Donald Trump claims to maintain with Kim Jong Un. In reality, there does not seem to be any relationship of any kind. Not to mention that the three symbolic meetings they held during Trump’s first term yielded no visible results.
That said, staging a restoration of ties would at least serve to take away one of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s many cards, who could return Trump’s official visit to Beijing this year, coinciding with the UN General Assembly in New York at the end of September. However, nothing is confirmed, among other things, because the Chinese envoys – according to some leaks – are overwhelmed by the disorganization in the current White House.
