Trump wants to be friends with Kim – but South Korea could pay the price

South Korea’s annual military exercises with the US come to an abrupt end on Friday.

Ulchi Freedom Shield, which involves 18,000 South Korean troops and 11 other American ally nations, is being halted with only half of the scheduled programme complete – days after US President Donald Trump announced he had ordered the Pentagon to “substantially reduce” the drill.

This revelation by Trump, who called the exercise “inappropriate and hostile” towards North Korea and costly to the US, caught his allies by surprise.

Seoul’s Foreign Minister Cho Hyun tried to paint the decision as one of mutual agreement, but admitted officials did not know of Trump’s intent to scale down the exercise in advance.

The move will also have rattled the likes of Taiwan and Japan, which have long relied on US security guarantees in the region.

Trump, who has also criticised Seoul for refusing to take part in action against Iran, has said he expects to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un later this year.

And while South Korea has long been keen on Trump reaching out to Kim as a means of maintaining diplomacy, it would not have wanted it to come with demands for cash and military assistance in Iran.

Although it has traditionally been happy to scale down or suspend the exercises in order to lure North Korea to peace talks, Trump’s unilateral and sudden decision to pull his troops early has shaken South Korean confidence in the US as an ally, according to Jo Bee-yun, a Senior Research Fellow at the Atlantic Council.

There is a fear that Trump may go further and draw down the 27,000 US troops stationed in South Korea or even abandon the longstanding policy of denuclearising the North – all without consulting its ally.