▲ The social media post uploaded by U.S. President Trump on the 25th (local time)
U.S. President Donald Trump has re-uploaded a social media post he made nine days ago regarding his instruction to scale down the South Korea-U.S. joint military exercises, only adjusting the verb tenses to the past.
On the morning of the 25th (local time), President Trump posted on Truth Social that he was unhappy with the South Korea-U.S. joint exercises and had instructed U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to significantly reduce them.
The content is nearly identical to what he posted on Truth Social nine days ago on the 16th.
However, some sentences that were previously in the present tense were changed to the past tense.
The phrase "(It is) too late to cancel (the South Korea-U.S. joint exercises)" was changed to "it was too late to cancel."
In addition, a sentence from nine days ago reading, "Given the very good relationship I have with North Korean Chairman Kim Jong-un, I do not like the fact that the U.S. has long agreed to participate in joint military drills with South Korea," was also tweaked in tense to "did not like."
It is presumed that he intentionally re-uploaded nearly the same post with only the tenses changed.
The post highlights his good relationship with North Korean State Affairs Commission Chairman Kim Jong-un and states that the South Korea-U.S. joint exercises send an inappropriate and hostile signal to North Korea.
The remark that he ordered a significant reduction because it was too late to cancel can be interpreted to mean that cancellation would have been possible if conditions had permitted, making it a point that North Korea is likely to monitor closely regarding the future progress of the joint exercises.
While North Korea has shown a superficially cold response, stating it has no interest in the scaling back of the exercises, observers suggest it is engaging in a probing operation to see the extent of the appeasement cards President Trump could put on the table, starting with the reduction of the joint drills.
Analysts interpret President Trump's re-uploading of the post with a few tenses modified as a renewed message of courtship to Chairman Kim, emphasizing his willingness to resume North Korea-U.S. dialogue.
The previous day, President Trump also posted multiple photos on Truth Social taken with Chairman Kim during the first North Korea-U.S. summit in 2018 and the Panmunjom meeting in 2019, sending messages aimed at resuming dialogue.
(Photo: Captured from Truth Social, Yonhap News)
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