Large-scale military drills with South Korea ‘suspended indefinitely:’ report

The Pentagon has “suspended indefinitely” large-scale military exercises with South Korea, Agence France-Presse reported. 

A U.S. official told AFP that “major military exercises have been suspended indefinitely on the Korean peninsula.”

President Trump earlier this week announced that the U.S. would be “stopping war games” on the Korean Peninsula amid ongoing talks with North Korea about denuclearization.

{mosads}

Trump made the announcement after his historic meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore — much to the confusion of lawmakers and foreign allies, who were not clear on which exercises would stop and for how long.

The Defense Department holds two major joint military drills with South Korea each year, in roughly March and August. The last such exercise lasted 11 days and included about 17,500 U.S. forces and 50,000 South Korean troops.

The next joint military drill with South Korea would be Ulchi Freedom Guardian, scheduled as of this week for the fall.

Vice President Pence said this week that the semiannual war games would stop as long as North Korea follows through on efforts to denuclearize, but “regular readiness training” would continue.