On August 19, South Korea said that joint military exercises taking place with the US were narrowed in scale after President Donald Trump cited "very good" relations with North Korean Chairman Kim Jong Un and requested to reduce this activity.
According to the South Korean Ministry of National Defense, the annual exercise called Ulchi Freedom Shield (UFS) will end on August 21 instead of August 27 as initially planned.
The two allies "agreed, at the request of the US, to partially adjust the duration and scale of the exercise," the South Korean Ministry of National Defense's statement stated. Some joint field training will also be conducted on a narrower scale, while the two sides "are consulting on details".
Mr. Trump's surprise statement, made just hours before the exercise began earlier this week, has caused disruption in South Korea as well as with Washington's other allies in the region.
The South Korean Ministry of National Defense said that the South Korean-US Joint Forces Command, the operational headquarters of the South Korean army and US forces in South Korea, is deploying exercises with wartime commands divided between the Tango Command and Camp Humphreys base in southern Seoul.
In the coming time, South Korea and the United States will discuss and implement many measures to achieve the goals of the UFS exercise and maintain a solid common defense posture," the statement said.
According to the US Forces in South Korea, this annual exercise aims to enhance understanding between the two armies to ensure "the ability to strengthen the common defense posture" and improve response capabilities to "a wide spectrum of security threats".
