President Donald Trump said Monday that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un treats him with "great respect," a day after ordering the Pentagon to scale back annual joint military exercises with South Korea, which he criticized for not joining the U.S. war in Iran. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Associated Press.
Trump's decision to scale back joint military exercises with South Korea does not just slight a longtime ally but raises broader concerns about the security interests of the United States in Asia and elsewhere.
Trump explained his decision by citing South Korea's refusal to join his war against Iran and pointing to what he said was his good relationship with North Korea's reclusive dictator, a transactional and personal approach to foreign policy that has defined the Republican's presidency.
"There is no American interest that I can see in this," said Dan Fried, an assistant secretary of state for European affairs in the George W. Bush administration. "On all levels it makes no sense. It undermines the South Koreans, undermines the Japanese, frightens the Taiwanese, unnerves NATO and emboldens the Chinese, not to mention the North Koreans."
Danny Russel, former assistant secretary of state for East Asia and the Pacific in the Obama administration, said Trump's decision to side with North Korea, which strongly objects to the annual joint military exercises, is "firmly in the 'hard-to see-how-it-could-be-worse' category."
"It is tragically upside-down. Trump is punishing an ally while encouraging an adversary," said Russel, now a scholar at the Asia Society Policy Institute in New York. "He is protecting Kim Jong Un's sensitive feelings from an unfriendly signal at the expense of U.S.-South Korean security."
Trump on Sunday ordered the U.S. military to downsize the 11-day Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises, which began Monday as scheduled. It wasn't known which parts of the training were being scaled back.
His announcement baffled many in South Korea, which has been closely allied with the U.S. for decades and where national security is a top priority due to threats from nuclear-armed North Korea.