Donald Trump angered U.S. allies, had lunch with Kim Jung-Un, signed a letter of intent, and made the YUGE concession of suspending the ‘war games’ … uhm … military exercises on the Korean Peninsula. North Korea has used the joint US/South Korea exercises as an excuse to build their nuclear and ballistic capabilities.
Trump thinks it is ‘inappropriate’ to continue the exercises and that suspending the military exercises made North Korea very happy (ya think?), though it seems to have caught the US Military in Korea by surprise. US Forces Korea said Tuesday it had received no instructions to stop upcoming military drills, according to a report from Stars and Stripes, an unofficial military newspaper. Similarly confused, the South Korean President’s office said Tuesday it was still trying to figure out what Trump meant in his military comments.
Trump now says he’s worried about spending on the military exercises and wants to remove US soldiers from South Korea… eventually. He wasn’t so worried during the last military exercises in November. “I think we’re showing great strength,” Trump said at the time. “We sent three of the largest aircraft carriers in the world (to the Korean Peninsula) and a nuclear submarine is also positioned.”
The US and South signed a mutual defense treaty in 1953 after the end of the Korean War and US forces have been a continuous presence in the country since.
For more: CNN