The President of the United States, Donald Trump, communicated this Sunday a "substantial reduction" of the usual joint military exercises that Washington conducts with South Korea.
In a message disseminated on social media, the leader details three main reasons to justify this shift: the "very good relationship" he claims to maintain with North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un; the high economic cost of the maneuvers; and the reluctance of the Seoul government to get involved in the war against Iran.
"Based on my excellent relationship with Kim Jong Un, from North Korea, I am not pleased that the United States has long agreed to participate in joint military exercises with South Korea," Trump noted, referring to maneuvers that "are not only costly, with a large part of the expenses borne by the United States."
These exercises, considered for years a key strategic element in the military balance of the Indo-Pacific, send, according to Trump, a "totally inappropriate and hostile signal to a country that," North Korea, which, according to Trump, has shown to be "peaceful and respectful" since returning to power.
Likewise, and "although it does not have much relation," Trump reproached South Korean President, Lee Jae Myung, for his refusal to join the "denuclearization" of the Islamic Republic of Iran, a term with which Trump himself initially referred to the talks with Tehran about its nuclear program and, later, to the central objective of the military campaign that the United States has maintained against the country since February.