US President Donald Trump has ordered Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth to scale back annual joint military exercises with South Korea, posting on Truth Social just hours before the drills were due to begin that they send a message he called hostile to North Korea.
The Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises were set to run for eleven days and involve around eighteen thousand South Korean troops alongside American forces stationed on the peninsula.
The announcement came days after North Korea's eleventh ballistic missile test of the year, and a day after President Trump posted a photograph of himself alongside North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Nick Harper reports from Washington.
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Reporter Nick Harper in Washington says President Trump also linked the decision to South Korea's refusal to support the American-led campaign in Iran.
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Nick Harper, our reporter in Washington, says the move has significant implications for one of America's most important strategic partnerships in the region.
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