Trump orders reduced drills while pursuing Kim Jong Un meeting
North Korea fired multiple short-range ballistic missiles toward the East Sea on Thursday in what Seoul’s military said was the North’s third launch in less than two weeks.
Later that evening, Kim Yo Jong, the sister of leader Kim Jong Un, derided Seoul as a “puppet” of the United States in a commentary carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency.
South Korea’s presidential Blue House responded Friday, calling on the North to halt its “derogatory remarks” toward Seoul.
The exchange follows Trump’s call Sunday for the allies’ joint military drills to be “substantially reduced” in a post on Truth Social, in which he said they are expensive and “send a signal that is totally inappropriate and hostile” to North Korea. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff on Wednesday announced that the two sides would cut short the ongoing exercise by almost a week. The command-post portion was set to conclude Friday, while a pared-down set of field training drills will continue through next week as originally scheduled.
In her commentary, Kim accused South Korean President Lee Jae Myung of making “double-dealing remarks” and said this week’s decision to cut short the Ulchi Freedom Shield joint military exercise had “placed Seoul in a poor plight of discontinuing the ‘war game’ it liked very much.” She accused Lee of “uttering shameful words” in a social media post in which he expressed respect for Trump’s order to scale back the exercise while pledging that South Korea would continue building up its self-sufficient military capacity.
“Such double-dealing behavior vividly proves uneasiness and impatience of the ROK,” Kim said, using the official acronym for South Korea. “The world witnesses that the U.S. security aids are no longer free of charge,” she added. “Seoul should be aware of the unavoidable fate of the ‘puppet.’”
“Derogatory remarks toward our government and president do not help in building mutual trust,” the Blue House said in remarks reported by the Yonhap News Agency. “We call on the North to halt unnecessary criticism and march together toward peaceful coexistence on the Korean Peninsula,” it added.
In an earlier KCNA commentary, Kim Yo Jong had downplayed the significance of the exercise reduction, calling it “unworthy of comment.” “If the U.S. calculates that it can propagate its recent measure as the one of so-called good faith, they will not get desired answer,” she said.
The directive has been widely seen as an effort by Trump to restart diplomacy with the North. On Wednesday, Trump told reporters that he expected to meet Kim Jong Un this year. On Friday, the Blue House reiterated its commitment to peaceful coexistence between the two Koreas. “As a party directly involved in building peace on the Korean Peninsula, the government will continue its close cooperation with the U.S. while making proactive efforts to help resume North Korea-U.S. dialogue as a ‘pacemaker,’” the presidential office said, according to Yonhap.