US and South Korea to end war games that angered Kim

THE US and South Korea are ending their joint annual large-scale military exercises as part of diplomatic efforts to persuade North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons programme.

Yesterday’s announcement came days after Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un’s summit ended without formal agreement but with both sides suggesting they would keep talking.

Close to 30,000 US troops are stationed in South Korea, and their annual drills with tens of thousands of South Korean soldiers have been a perennial target of North Korean fury – with Pyongyang condemning them as provocative rehearsals for invasion.

While Mr Trump has ruled out withdrawing the troops, he has repeatedly complained about the cost of the “very, very expensive” exercises.

During a Saturday phone call between Jeong Kyeong-doo, the South Korean defence minister, and Patrick Shanahan, his US counterpart, “both sides decided to conclude the Key Resolve and Foal Eagle series of exercises”, a Pentagon statement said.

Foal Eagle has involved 200,000 South Korean forces and 30,000 US soldiers in the past. It is accompanied by Key Resolve, a computer-simulated war game conducted by commanders, which usually begins in March.

The decision was reached to support continuing diplomatic efforts for North Korea’s denuclearisation and ease military tensions with the North, it added.

South Korea’s foreign ministry said that Lee Do-hoon, Seoul’s chief nuclear envoy, would hold talks in Washington with Stephen Biegun, his US counterpart, this week. They are expected to discuss the Hanoi summit, which failed to build on the vaguely-worded commitment to denuclearise the Korean peninsula signed by Kim and Mr Trump during their first meeting in Singapore last year.