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South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun said on Wednesday that Seoul was not informed beforehand about US President Donald Trump's decision to scale back joint military exercises with South Korea, Yonhap News Agency reported.
"Neither our government nor US officials knew what President Trump wrote on his Truth Social," Cho told the National Assembly Committee on Foreign Affairs and Unification. "We were not notified in advance," he said. Cho was speaking about the reduction of the ongoing Ulchi Freedom Shield, the annual South Korea-US joint military exercise that began on Monday. The exercise will now end six days earlier than planned, on August 21. Cho said South Korean Defence Minister Ahn Gyu-back was in "close consultations" with his US counterparts over the reduction. "Since our defence minister was involved in the discussions, I do not think it amounts to a unilateral notification," he said. Cho also said the reduction should not be used to delay the planned transfer of wartime operational control from the US to South Korea. Washington "should not be able to use the reduction as a reason to further delay the transfer as the drills are being scaled back at the US' request," he said. On the possibility of a summit between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un this fall, Cho said such a meeting, if held, would mark "a new turning point." "The (South Korean) government has been making thorough preparations to open channels for dialogue with North Korea, and we will closely consult with the US side not to miss this opportunity," he said. Cho said Seoul had already conveyed its intention to Washington but had not received a response. He added that South Korea had also asked about details of what Trump has described as a recent exchange between Washington and Pyongyang. Asked whether the US could leave South Korea out of its efforts to engage North Korea, Cho said his ministry would work closely with relevant US agencies and take steps to ensure that the South Korea-US alliance does not weaken. His statement comes as the joint military exercise Ulchi Freedom Shield (UFS) between the United States of America and South Korea, which commenced earlier this week, has been cut short, with the scheduled field training also set to be reduced, South Korea's Yonhap News Agency confirmed, citing the military. The UFS was slated to run from August 17-27. As per Yonhap, the military drill was agreed to be cut short to Friday, paring down the drill period almost by half, Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said in a release. (ANI)
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