Trump Urges Cuts to U.S.-South Korea Drills, Citing $5.6 Billion Cost and Kim Ties
Updated
Updated · Institute for Policy Studies · Aug 24
Trump Urges Cuts to U.S.-South Korea Drills, Citing $5.6 Billion Cost and Kim Ties
3 articles · Updated · Institute for Policy Studies · Aug 24
Summary
An Aug. 16 Trump post called for sharply reducing U.S.-South Korea military exercises, arguing they are costly, unnecessarily hostile to North Korea and at odds with his “very good relationship” with Kim Jong Un.
Roughly 28,500 U.S. troops remain on the peninsula, and the drills often involve tens of thousands of personnel plus B-2 bombers, carriers and submarines in scenarios North Korea treats as invasion rehearsals.
South Korea’s Lee Jae Myung government has already pushed a “peace-first” line: Unification Minister Chung Dong-young on July 23 proposed freezing, then reducing, then dismantling Pyongyang’s arsenal, and a 90-minute Trump-Lee G7 dinner backed peaceful resolution without invoking denuclearization.
Republicans and Democrats attacked Trump for slighting a 70-year ally and favoring an authoritarian leader, but the report argues scaling back drills would also curb a broader U.S. posture increasingly tied to China rather than South Korea’s direct defense.
A new David Vine study put the 2024 cost of U.S. bases and troops in South Korea at about $5.58 billion, as Lee this week also pressed to speed transfer of wartime operational control back to Seoul.