SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA – 2025\/01\/24: A 24-hour Yonhap news TV broadcast at Seoul Railway Station showing a news broadcast with the file footage of U.S. President Donald Trump (L) with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (R). <\/p>\n
Kim Jae-Hwan | Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images<\/p>\n
South Korea’s military said Wednesday that it would cut an annual joint military exercise with the U.S. by about half, after President Donald Trump<\/a> ordered the Pentagon to scale it back and reportedly pushed to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as soon as this fall. <\/p>\n The annual joint Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise period will be reduced to Aug. 17 to 21, according to a statement from South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, noting the decision was a U.S. proposal. The program had originally been scheduled to conclude on Aug. 27. <\/p>\n The allies also decided to scale back some of the combined field training exercises, according to the armed forces, with the specifics still under discussion between the two. <\/p>\n The Wall Street Journal reported<\/a> Wednesday that Trump is pressing aides to arrange a meeting with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un as soon as this fall, in a push to revive personal diplomacy with the reclusive leader. The two previously met face-to-face during Trump’s first term, in 2018, in Singapore.<\/p>\n Trump has privately discussed arranging an in-person meeting with Kim during his next trip to Asia, likely in November, the Journal said, when he is expected to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Shenzhen, China. <\/p>\n The developments came after Trump ordered Secretary of War Pete Hegseth to scale back “substantially”<\/a> the joint military drills on Sunday evening stateside, just before its start on Monday. <\/p>\n The moves mark the latest escalation of Trump’s outreach to Pyongyang, unsettling a 70-year alliance with South Korea already battered by the transfer of wartime operational control and Seoul’s refusal to back U.S. efforts on Iran. <\/p>\n The allies had planned 14 combined field-training programs alongside this year’s command-post exercise, which was to include about 18,000 South Korean troops, according to the Associated Press<\/a>. <\/p>\n Allies are likely to respond to the U.S.’s scaled-back involvement by bolstering their own military capacity, increasing defense spending, and forming new partnerships with neighbors, said Jennifer Kavanagh, senior fellow and director of military analysis at Defense Priorities. <\/p>\n Defense autonomy would bring foreign policy independence and an end to the insecurity that comes with outsourcing national defense to a foreign power, she said. <\/p>\n “Allies will become more self-sufficient over time, and they will need the United States less,” she added, pointing to rising defense budgets and deepening cooperation among Japan, the Philippines, South Korea and Australia. <\/p>\n For Washington, the benefits of a reduced footprint in Asia would “far outweigh” the loss of influence, Kavanagh said, as a smaller defense burden means more money for domestic priorities and a reduced risk of major war, including with China. <\/p>\n \u2014 CNBC’s Jenny Lee contributed to this report. <\/p>\n