SACHA PFEIFFER, HOST:
President Trump says he wants the U.S. to scale back military cooperation with one of its allies - South Korea. He posted this online within hours of the planned start of joint exercises between the two countries. Trump's comments may be an olive branch to North Korea in the hopes of restarting diplomacy with North Korea that began and then stalled in Trump's first term. NPR's Anthony Kuhn reports from Seoul.
ANTHONY KUHN, BYLINE: In a social media post, President Trump said that joint drills with South Korea are costly and send a hostile message to North Korea. He added that he has a good relationship with the North's leader, Kim Jong Un, and he expressed disappointment that South Korea had declined to help the U.S. with operations against Iran. South Korea's presidential office said it hopes that friendly relations between Trump and Kim will lead to meaningful dialogue between their two countries. But Trump's orders came as a shock to people waking up in Seoul.
CHUN IN-BUM: I was really surprised that it came at this stage, which is right on the day of the start of the exercise.
KUHN: Chun In-bum is a retired South Korean army lieutenant general. He says such concessions to North Korea will be taken not as a goodwill gesture but as a sign of weakness.
CHUN: If you want to talk to the North Koreans and have them come to the table, all you have to do is say, OK. We give up, and we acknowledge that you are a nuclear weapons state. And they'll come to the table, and they will want many things.
KUHN: President Trump also scaled back military drills in 2018. He held three summits with Kim Jong Un, but they failed to reach a deal, and the talks fell apart in 2019. Chun In-bum notes that Trump's move is likely to be welcomed by the progressive administration of South Korean President Lee Jae Myung. Lee wants to engage with North Korea. But so far, Pyongyang has rejected Lee's conciliatory words and gestures. President Trump, meanwhile, has continued to speak favorably about Kim Jong Un. Returning from a summit in China in May, he told reporters aboard Air Force One that there had been no recent progress in reviving stalled diplomacy with Kim.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: But I have a good relationship with him. He's been respectful of our country.
KUHN: The Trump administration's 2026 national defense strategy says North Korea poses a nuclear threat to the U.S. homeland as well as to allies South Korea and Japan. General Chun In-bum says Trump's message could have an impact on the debate in South Korea on whether to continue to rely on the U.S. for defense against North Korea's nuclear weapons or whether to develop their own deterrent.
CHUN: Your traditional allies and greatest supporters of the alliance - they will naturally want their own capability to have nuclear weapons.
KUHN: South Korea's Defense Ministry says the 10 days of joint U.S.-South Korean military drills began as planned.
Anthony Kuhn, NPR News, Seoul. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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