Ending US-SKorea military drills catches Pentagon off guard

WASHINGTON — Pentagon officials were surprised yesterday after President Donald Trump vowed at his summit with the North's leader Kim Jong Un to cancel "provocative" joint military drills with South Korea.

Following the unprecedented meeting in Singapore, Trump stunned observers when he said continuing the exercises routinely held between the US and South Korea would be "inappropriate" while Washington fleshes out a comprehensive deal with Pyongyang.

"We will be stopping the war games, which will save us a tremendous amount of money, unless and until we see the future negotiation is not going along like it should," Trump said.

"Plus, I think it's very provocative," he noted, adding that "at some point" he wanted to withdraw US troops from the South.

Hours after Trump's declaration, the Pentagon on Tuesday afternoon insisted that US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis had not been blindsided by Trump.

"He was not surprised, he was consulted," Mattis's spokeswoman Dana White told reporters.

"Conversations have been robust, there were no surprises."

In a statement, White later said the Pentagon "welcomes the positive news coming out of the summit and fully supports the ongoing, diplomatically led efforts with" North Korea.

But US officials told AFP they were taken aback by the news, and Pentagon personnel spent the morning in meetings discussing what could amount to an epic shift in the US military's posture in South Korea.