WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump agreed not to conduct annual joint military drills with South Korea while the country hosts the Winter Olympics next month, the South Korean president’s office said after the two leaders held a 30-minute phone call.
During the call, President Moon Jae-in assured Trump that South Korea would fully coordinate with the U.S. during bilateral talks between the two countries that are set to take place later this month to discuss the possibility of North Korea sending a delegation to the Olympics in Pyeongchang, Moon’s office said.
While the White House didn’t immediately provide a summary of the call, Col. Rob Manning, a Pentagon spokesman, appeared to confirm the decision to delay scheduled joint exercises, saying in a statement Thursday that “the Department of Defense supports the President’s decision and what is in the best interest of the” U.S.-South Korean alliance.
South Korea asked that the annual exercise be rescheduled to avoid exacerbating tensions around the Olympics. In a New Year’s Day statement in which he opened the door to talks, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un repeated his standing demand that the U.S. and South Korea halt exercises.
In comments to reporters at the Pentagon last week, U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis downplayed the significance of a possible change in dates for the annual exercises.
“We always adjust exercise dates,” Mattis said. “There’s reasons for it, because we have ships available at certain times and there’s political considerations or there’s local holidays and this sort of thing. We do this all the time.”
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(Wadhams reported from Washington, Kong from Seoul. With assistance from Tony Capaccio.)
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PHOTO (for help with images, contact 312-222-4194): Moon Jae-in
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