[Anchor]

U.S. President Donald Trump has ordered a significant scaling down of the South Korea-U.S. joint military exercises. While doing so, he emphasized that he has a very good relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Amid the prolonged war in Iran, analyses suggest this may be an attempt to secure a diplomatic breakthrough by resuming dialogue between Washington and Pyongyang.

Correspondent Lee Hanseok reports from Washington.

[Reporter]

At 6:00 a.m. Korean time today (August 17), the very day the South Korea-U.S. joint exercise Ulchi Freedom Shield began, U.S. President Trump made public his decision to scale down the drills.

On his social media, he stated that while it was too late to cancel them, he had instructed the secretary of defense to drastically downsize the scale of the exercises.

Highlighting his very good relationship with Chairman Kim Jong Un, he wrote that the exercises cost an exorbitant amount of money and send a hostile signal to a country that, since he became president, has not threatened the United States and has respected it.

Yesterday, Trump also stoked anticipation by posting a photo of their impromptu meeting at Panmunjom, mentioning that he is on good terms with Kim.

[Donald Trump / U.S. President (April 7) : North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and I get along very well. You know he has said very nice things about me.]

Although joint drills were suspended or scaled down right after the North Korea-U.S. summit in Singapore in 2018, this is the first time he has publicly ordered a reduction since the start of his second term.

What stands out is that President Trump first proposed a massive reduction in the joint exercises, to which North Korea has reacted sensitively, denouncing them as war drills for invasion.

This is interpreted as a calculated move to draw a positive response from North Korea, which has been showing little interest in dialogue with the U.S. while growing closer to China and Russia, through a visible concession.

Analysts suggest that if this leads to tangible outcomes such as a suspension of ICBM provocations or the resumption of North Korea-U.S. dialogue, it could provide a crucial diplomatic breakthrough for President Trump ahead of the midterm elections in November, while bogged down in the six-month-long war in Iran.

Expressing some frustration, Trump also mentioned—calling it somewhat off-topic—that he had asked South Korea's president whether he would join in denuclearizing Iran, but was told it would be declined.

(Photo courtesy of Park Eun-ha | Video Editing by Jung Sung-hoon)