Seoul Says Trump's Drill Cutback Came Without Prior Warning

South Korea's Foreign Minister Cho Hyun has said that neither his government nor US officials were given advance notice of President Donald Trump's decision to scale down joint military exercises. The admission came during a parliamentary hearing in Seoul on Wednesday, where Cho was responding to questions about the abrupt change in the allies' training schedule.

Cho confirmed that the content of Trump's post on Truth Social was not known in advance to either side. However, he pushed back against the notion that Washington had acted unilaterally, noting that Defence Minister Ahn Gyu-back had been in close consultation with the US military following the president's announcement.

"Since our defence minister was consulting with the US, I don't think it was a unilateral notification by the United States," Cho told the Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee. He added that he had yet to receive detailed briefings from the defence ministry on the final terms of the agreement.

The remarks come after South Korea's military confirmed that the annual Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises, which began on Monday, would now conclude on Friday rather than 27 August as originally planned. The decision, made at Washington's request, also includes a reduction in the scale of some joint field training.

Trump had ordered the Pentagon to downsize the drills just before they began, citing his relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Seoul's refusal to support US policy on Iran. The move has raised concerns about the readiness of the US-South Korean alliance, though officials in Seoul have stressed that discussions on maintaining combined defence postures remain ongoing.