Donald Trump has said the US will stop joint military exercises with South Korea, saying it will save “a tremendous amount of money” and noting the war games are “very provocative”, in what appears to be a major concession to North Korea following his summit with Kim Jong-un.
Speaking in a press conference after Mr Kim left Singapore, the US president said the “war games are very expensive”, adding that the US pays “a big majority of the expenses for them”.
He complained that the US flies bombers from Guam to South Korea for “six or seven hours” for the exercises, saying he “knows a lot about planes” and that was “a long time for these big massive planes to be flying to South Korea to practice and then drop bombs all over the place”. Mr Trump owned an airline, Trump Shuttle, from 1989 to 1992.
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Mr Trump said his second motivation for stopping war games with South Korea was that it was inappropriate now that talks had begun with North Korea.
“I think it is very provocative,” he said. “You have a country that is right next door.”
Mr Trump appeared to suggest that he had not yet discussed stopping the war games with South Korea itself, saying it was something “we have to talk to them about”.
South Korea’s presidential office said in a statement that it was trying to establish what Mr Trump meant by his announcement. A Blue House spokesperson told NPR: “At this moment, the meaning and intention of President Trump’s remarks requires more clear understanding.”
