South Korea has cut short its annual Ulchi Freedom Shield military exercises with the United States by six days, following a request from Washington. Seoul's defence ministry confirmed the change came at the "proposal of the US side", after Donald Trump announced plans to scale back joint drills, pointing to his rapport with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and voicing frustration that South Korea had declined to help with a US military operation against Iran. South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun told parliament that neither South Korean nor US officials had known of Trump's plans in advance.

The exercise will now end on 21 August rather than 27 August, with the combined field training component also being "partially reduced in scale", though details remain under discussion. It follows reports that Trump is privately pushing for an in-person meeting with Kim Jong Un, possibly during a trip to Asia in November. Around 18,000 South Korean troops and some of the 28,500 US personnel stationed in the country were due to take part; North Korea's foreign ministry had condemned the drills as "a rehearsal for an aggressive war".