Trump Wants to 'Punch South Korea': Real Motive Behind Scale-Back of Joint Drills?

Analyses suggest that U.S. President Donald Trump's directive to scale back South Korea-U.S. joint military exercises is driven by frustration over the slow implementation of South Korea's investment in the United States.

Citing three sources familiar with the discussions, the U.S. political outlet Politico reported, "President Trump's revival of the card to scale back joint drills is driven by frustration that the pace of South Korea's promised 350 billion dollar investment in the U.S. is too slow."

U.S. officials believe that the South Korean government is intentionally delaying the fulfillment of its promised investments.

In particular, they pointed out that out of the total pledged amount, specific destinations for the remaining 200 billion dollars—excluding the 150 billion dollars allocated for shipbuilding cooperation—have yet to be announced, criticizing the South Korean negotiating team as "the slowest negotiators ever."

The outlet noted that grievances in the trade sector are spilling over into security issues.

Analyses indicate that President Trump is dissatisfied not only with the delayed implementation of investments in the U.S., but also with South Korea's regulations on Coupang and its lukewarm response to U.S. requests for support regarding the war in Iran and the Strait of Hormuz.

Politico wrote that President Trump "took it personally" that South Korea did not immediately respond to requests for support in the Iran war while receiving U.S. defense support.

Regarding this, another source conveyed President Trump's sentiment, going so far as to say, "It's like he wants to punch South Korea."

Interpretations suggest that while President Trump outwardly cites the resumption of dialogue with North Korea as justification, he is actually leveraging security as leverage to extract early implementation of investments in the U.S. and support for the Iran war.

Reported by Lee Hyeon-yeong | Video by Kim Min-ji | Design by Yang Hye-min | Produced by SBS Digital News
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.