Asia | Return to form

America and South Korea restart their big military drills

Donald Trump’s talks with Kim Jong Un, and the pandemic, had put them on hold

United States Marines take part in an annual KOR-USA combine military drill near Yeongil Bay in Pohang, South Korea on August 12, 2021. North Korea's top envoy in Russia has called for the U.S. troops' withdrawal from South Korea and called the allies' joint military exercise a ''war rehearsal,'' a Russian news agency said Thursday. (Photo by Seung-il Ryu/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Aug 18th 2022|SEOUL

After donald trump met Kim Jong Un in Singapore in 2018, he appeared sympathetic to the North Korean position. Having secured from his counterpart a commitment to the “complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula”, and feeling well on the way to a “comprehensive and complete deal”, Mr Trump called for an end to joint military drills between America and South Korea, which started in the 1950s. Not only were they expensive, he claimed, but they were “very provocative”, echoing North Korea’s propagandists.

This article appeared in the Asia section of the print edition under the headline “Return to form”