Trump orders scaled-back US-South Korea drills as exercise begins
What's new: Seoul said the 11-day Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise started as planned despite Trump's order to cut it back.
President Donald Trump ordered the Pentagon to substantially reduce annual joint military exercises with South Korea, even as the Ulchi Freedom Shield drill began on Aug. 17. Trump wrote that the exercises were costly and sent an unnecessarily hostile signal to North Korea, adding that it was too late to cancel them outright. South Korea's defense ministry said the 11-day exercise was proceeding as planned. The drills are a regular summer exercise for US and South Korean forces aimed at deterring North Korea, which has long condemned them. The United States keeps about 28,500 troops in South Korea, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended in an armistice rather than a peace treaty.