President Trump has directed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to sharply scale back joint US-South Korea military exercises, citing their cost and his relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The order lands as Washington remains focused on its Iran conflict, and follows Seoul's decision to decline Trump's request to help denuclearize Iran.
President Donald Trump said on Sunday he has ordered a significant reduction in joint military exercises between the United States and South Korea, citing cost concerns and what he described as his good relationship with Kim. He said the drills are expensive and largely funded by Washington, and that they send an inappropriate signal to a country he called unthreatening during his time in office. Trump said it is too late to cancel the exercises outright, so he instructed Hegseth to reduce their scale instead.
Iran war shapes the timing
The announcement comes as Washington remains consumed by its escalating conflict with Iran, where tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has stayed halted for weeks and gasoline prices remain a domestic political issue. Scaling back a long-running commitment in Korea on cost grounds fits a pattern of an administration trimming exposure in secondary theatres while its resources stay fixed on the Middle East. Any perception that US commitments on the peninsula are softening could add a modest risk premium for Korean won assets and defense-related equities, though the scale of the drill reduction remains unspecified.
A familiar playbook
His approach echoes his first term: in August 2018, shortly after his Singapore summit with Kim, he suspended major joint drills, and by March 2019, following the failed Hanoi summit, the Pentagon formally ended the spring exercises known as Key Resolve and Foal Eagle. Several other exercises, including Freedom Guardian and Ulchi, have been reduced or canceled since 2018. The US currently maintains approximately 28,500 troops in South Korea, and in late 2025 Congress passed legislation designed to prevent further reductions to that force.
Seoul's offer on Iran declined
Trump also said he separately asked South Korea's president whether Seoul would join US efforts to denuclearize Iran, and that the response was a polite decline. He called the two matters somewhat unrelated, even though he raised them in the same post. The move is likely to draw scrutiny from South Korean officials and members of Congress who have viewed the joint drills as a deterrent against North Korean aggression, according to Investinglive. Japan, which hosts roughly 54,000 US military personnel and relies on American extended deterrence, is likely to watch closely, Crypto Briefing reports.
Sources: Investinglive, Crypto Briefing
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