US President Donald Trump has instructed the Pentagon chief, Pete Hegseth, to majorly cut down upcoming joint military drills with South Korea, stating that the exercises are too expensive and send a hostile, inappropriate message to North Korea. 

 

In a social media post yesterday,  Trump explained that it was too late to completely cancel the 11-day “Ulchi Freedom Shield” exercise, which begins today. Despite Trump’s directive, South Korea’s defence ministry confirmed that the regular summer drills will proceed as planned with 18,000 South Korean troops participating. The training, which North Korea routinely denounces as a rehearsal for war, focuses heavily on modern security threats like fighting drones, stopping cyberattacks, and handling GPS disruption.