President Donald Trump ordered the Pentagon on Sunday to substantially reduce joint military exercises with South Korea, citing their cost and his relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, prompting Seoul to renew its push for independent wartime command of its own forces.

The announcement came days before the annual Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise was scheduled to begin. Trump's directive, posted on Truth Social, criticized the drills as expensive and potentially hostile to North Korea, while also faulting Seoul for not supporting requested U.S. military action against Iran.

Following Trump's order, U.S. and South Korean military officials agreed to cut the 11-day exercise to just five days, ending on Friday rather than August 27 as originally planned. Some joint field training components were also downsized or canceled entirely.

South Korea Responds with Independence Push

South Korean President Lee Jae-myung used Trump's decision to accelerate his administration's longstanding goal of regaining wartime operational control (OPCON) of combined forces from the U.S.-led command structure that has existed since the Korean War.

"South Korea's military and industrial strength demands faster progress on regaining wartime command and building nuclear-powered attack submarines," Lee told his cabinet Tuesday, without mentioning Trump by name. The president committed to completing the OPCON transfer by the end of his term in 2030.

Since 1994, South Korea has held peacetime operational control of its military, but the United States retains command authority in the event of war with North Korea. The planned transfer runs through a three-stage certification process designed to ensure South Korean forces can independently manage major combat operations on the peninsula.

Trump's Justification and Kim Jong Un Comments

In his Truth Social post, Trump argued the exercises "appear hostile to North Korea," despite the fact that Pyongyang has been "very unthreatening lately." The president emphasized his "very good relationship" with Kim Jong Un, echoing language from his first term when he briefly suspended certain drills following the 2018 Singapore summit.

Trump also cited the substantial cost of the exercises and criticized South Korea for declining to support potential U.S. military operations against Iran. The president did not provide specific details about what assistance was requested or when.

North Korea's official response came Tuesday, when a foreign ministry official dismissed the scaled-back drills as insufficient, saying they "change nothing" and calling them a continued rehearsal for war. The statement suggested Pyongyang remains skeptical of Trump's outreach despite the reduction in exercises.

Democratic and Allied Concerns

Democratic lawmakers and foreign policy experts warned that Trump's unilateral decision to curtail the drills undermines U.S. credibility with allies and emboldens adversaries. "America's security commitments have become negotiable," said one congressional aide briefed on allied reactions.

The Guardian reported that South Korea's military displayed its ballistic missiles in September 2025 as Seoul has moved to strengthen its independent defense capabilities amid uncertainty over U.S. alliance commitments. The push for nuclear-powered submarines represents another element of this strategy, though such vessels remain years away from deployment.

The New York Times noted that Trump's order comes as allies across the globe question U.S. commitment to longstanding defense partnerships, pointing to similar concerns in Europe over NATO and in the Middle East following the Mecca Defense Pact among Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Pakistan.

Soldiers assigned to the 304th Expeditional Signal Battalion-Enhanced, deployed to support the abbreviated Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise, continued their communications equipment installations at Camp Tango in South Korea this week despite the shortened timeline. The drill will conclude Friday.