00:00I called him, I said, would you like to give us a little hand?
00:02We don't need help with Iran, but if you'd like, give us a hand with Iran.
00:07He said, no thanks.
00:08And I said, wait a minute, we have 39,000 soldiers over there guarding you from Kim Jong-un,
00:15your next-door neighbor, and you're not going to help us on a very easy military operation in Iran?
00:23That's strange.
00:24No, no, we'd rather not get involved.
00:26I said, well, why are we involved in helping you?
00:30And so, and I want to help them, but, you know, when you ask somebody, would you like
00:35to give us a hand, and they say, no thanks, and then we're guarding them from a country
00:39and paying ourselves billions of dollars, costing us billions and billions of dollars to protect
00:45not only them.
00:48U.S. President Donald Trump has announced that Washington will reduce military exercises
00:54with South Korea just hours before the annual drills were due to begin.
01:00And his reason?
01:01Trump pointed to two things, his relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, and South
01:08Korea's refusal to help the United States in its war against Iran.
01:13In a post on Truth Social, Trump said he was unhappy that the United States had agreed to
01:19participate in the joint exercises with South Korea.
01:22He called the drills costly, arguing that much of the expense is paid by the United States.
01:29But then came the more striking part.
01:32Trump said the exercises send an inappropriate and hostile signal to North Korea, a country
01:39he says has remained unthreatening and respectful toward him during his presidency.
01:44That is significant because South Korea has been one of America's closest military allies
01:50for more than seven decades.
01:52The two countries have a mutual defense treaty, primarily aimed at protecting South Korea from
01:59North Korea.
02:00And North Korea is no longer simply a conventional military threat.
02:04It possesses nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of threatening targets
02:11far beyond the Korean peninsula.
02:13The annual Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises were scheduled to begin Monday and continue for around
02:2010 days.
02:22Thousands of troops were expected to participate, with at least 18,000 South Korean troops reportedly
02:28involved.
02:29The exercises were also designed around some of North Korea's evolving capabilities, including
02:35drone attacks, GPS disruption, and cyber warfare.
02:39But despite Trump's announcement, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said the drills began
02:45as scheduled.
02:47What remains unclear is exactly how much the exercises will be reduced, or whether Trump's
02:53announcement will lead to changes during the drills.
02:56And then there's Iran.
02:58Trump said he had recently asked South Korea's president whether Seoul wanted to join the United
03:04States in the denuclearization of Iran.
03:07Iran.
03:07According to Trump, South Korea said, no thanks.
03:11Trump's message suggests that Washington's military relationships could increasingly be
03:16tied to whether allies are willing to support U.S. priorities beyond their immediate region.
03:22And this is not the first time Trump has questioned large-scale military exercises with South Korea.
03:29During his first presidency, he also criticized the costs of the drills, and argued that suspending
03:35or reducing them could help ease tensions with Kim Jong-un.
03:39In 2019, after a Trump-Kim summit failed to produce a nuclear agreement, Washington and Seoul reconfigured
03:47major annual exercises into smaller operations.
03:51Now that relationship is back in focus.
03:54Trump says he has a very good relationship with Kim Jong-un, and he has repeatedly referenced
04:00that relationship since returning to office.
04:03For South Korea, however, the central question remains its security against North Korea.
04:09For Washington, Trump is increasingly framing alliances around cost, reciprocity, and support
04:16for U.S. foreign policy.
04:18And that creates a major tension.
04:21Because reducing military exercises may lower costs and potentially reduce tensions with Pyongyang,
04:28but it could also raise questions about military readiness and America's long-standing commitment
04:34to defend South Korea.
04:35So the key question now is, is Trump's move a negotiating tactic to keep Kim Jong-un engaged?
04:44Or is Washington really prepared to scale back one of its most important military partnerships
04:49in Asia?
04:51That answer could have major consequences for the Korean peninsula and for America's alliances
04:57across the region.
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