{"id":587636,"date":"2026-08-17T18:08:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T18:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/587636\/"},"modified":"2026-08-17T18:08:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T18:08:10","slug":"trump-scales-back-military-exercises-to-please-kim-jong-un","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/587636\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump Scales Back Military Exercises to Please Kim Jong Un"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tIn June 1950, North Korean tanks swarmed south over the 38th parallel in a surprise blitz on South Korea. They captured Seoul within three days, launching the three-year-long Korean War. Propelled by the backing and training of the Soviet Union and China, the North Korean armies initially ran roughshod over the American-backed South Korean forces, granting a propaganda victory for the governments of Josef Stalin and Mao Zedong. The United States would ultimately lead a U.N.-backed coalition of nations to help beat back North Korea<\/a>\u2018s forces, negotiate the armistice that remains in place today, and provide security guarantees to South Korea, in exchange for the even deeper entrenchment of military operations and facilities around the coast of China.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tSeventy-five years later, America\u2019s presence in the South China Sea has less to do with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un<\/a>\u2019s military might, and demonstrating to North Korea and its international backers that the United States remains a force<\/a> to be reckoned with in their region.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThat is, unless Donald Trump<\/a> has anything to say about it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe American president, famous for his spiritual kinship<\/a> with global tyrants and autocrats, decided on Sunday that he was pretty good friends<\/a> with Kim, and it would be very rude to do joint military exercises with an American ally against his wishes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cBased on my very good relationship with Kim Jong Un, of North Korea, I am not happy with the fact that the United States has, long ago, agreed to participate in Joint Military Exercises with South Korea,\u201d Trump wrote Sunday<\/a> afternoon on Truth Social. \u201cThese exercises are not only costly, with much of these costs paid for by the United States of America (as usual!), but send a signal that is totally inappropriate and hostile, to a Country that, as long as Donald J. Trump has been President, has been unthreatening and respectful.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe president ordered Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to \u201csubstantially reduce\u201d the scope of the joint military exercises. The planned drills were expected to take place over 10 days and focus on emerging and rapidly evolving war-fighting technology, including drone use and cyberattacks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n

\n\tLast year<\/a>, the North Korean government called the 2025 drills \u201cthe most comprehensive and offensive war drill for aggression in terms of scale, content and nature.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe U.S. and its allies are gradually undermining the security environment of the Korean Peninsula,\u201d they added.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the lead-up to this year\u2019s exercises, they once again condemned the planned drills, calling<\/a> them \u201ca rehearsal for an aggressive war.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt is our consistent principle of ensuring security to respond to a new level of a threat with a new level of a deterrent,\u201d the North Korean Foreign Ministry added, threatening that the nation would \u201cmore clearly express its stance on the enemies to cope with any threats and challenges through the responsible and decisive exercise of the right to legitimate self-defense.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tTrump has seemingly been cowed, at the potential expense of the trust of a critical ally in the region. The president\u2019s deference to Kim Jong Un comes as other nations in Asia worry<\/a> that his myopia on Iran and the large-scale depletion of American weapons stores could embolden China\u2019s ambitions for control of Taiwan and other military targets. Trump seems more concerned with preserving his \u201cgood relationship\u201d with a dictator.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In June 1950, North Korean tanks swarmed south over the 38th parallel in a surprise blitz on South…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":587637,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[7391,2748,54,42,107434,43,16010,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-587636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-controversy","tag-department-of-defense","tag-donald-trump","tag-headlines","tag-kim-jong-un","tag-news","tag-north-korea","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=587636"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587636\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/587637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=587636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=587636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=587636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}