US and S. Korea to end major military exercises

The United States and South Korea announced Sunday that they will no longer carry out their large-scale springtime military exercises in an effort to improve diplomatic ties with North Korea. 

The Pentagon said in a statement that defense chiefs from the two countries had decided to end the drills, known as Foal Eagle and Key Resolve, in favor of smaller training programs. 

The new activities will involve "adjusted outside maneuver trainings and united command exercises to continue firm military readiness," Seoul's defense ministry said.

The Foal Eagle exercise is the largest of the annual joint exercises carried out by US and South Korean forces. In the past, it has involved 200,000 South Korean troops and nearly 30,000 US soldiers.

The spring exercises have frequently been condemned by North Korea, which views them as preparations for invasion.

News of the scale-down came after US President Donald Trump's high-stakes summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Vietnam.

Trump: Exercises are 'very, very expensive'

Although the meeting between Trump and Kim ended without a formal agreement on denuclearization, the two sides suggested that they would continue talks.

The US has scaled back or discontinued several joint military drills with South Korea since Trump's first summit with Kim last year in Singapore.

Trump has frequently complained about the costs of the exercises, telling reporters this week that the annual drills were "very, very expensive."

"I was telling the generals, I said: Look, you know, exercising is fun and it's nice and they play the war games. And I'm not saying it's not necessary, because at some levels it is, but at other levels it's not," Trump said at the end of the summit in Hanoi.

One exercise that was suspended last year, dubbed Freedom Guardian, would have cost $14 million (€12.3 million), according to estimates from the Pentagon. The US military's annual budget is $700 billion.

The US president has, however, ruled out withdrawing any of the 28,500 US forces that are stationed in South Korea.

Any reduction of US troops would likely be met with strong criticism from the US Congress and Japan, whose government is wary of nuclear-armed North Korea's intentions in the region.

rs,nm/bw (AFP, Reuters)

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