Trump contradicts Mattis on ‘war games’ with South Korea
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said the United States shouldn’t be spending large amounts of money on joint military exercises with South Korea and suggested he had suspended such war games indefinitely, contradicting earlier statements from his own defense secretary that indicated the regular program of exercises with Seoul remained on track.
The mixed messages came some 10 weeks after the U.S. military announced the suspension of certain war games with South Korea as a concession that Mr. Trump brokered during his June meeting in Singapore with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
The joint military exercises between Washington and Seoul have long been a sore point for North Korea’s leadership, which regularly calls them provocative and threatening and at times mounts a response. The Trump administration agreedto suspend some of the exercises after the Singapore summit as American diplomats advanced nuclear disarmament talks with North Korea.
In his tweets on Wednesday night, Mr. Trump said “there is no reason at this time to be spending large amounts of money on joint U.S.-South Korea war games.”
Mr. Trump, referring to himself, added: “Besides, the President can instantly start the joint exercises again with South Korea and Japan, if he so chooses. If he does, they will be far bigger than ever before.”
His suggestion that all military exercises with South Korea and Japan had been suspended indefinitely directly contradicted what Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said the day before.
Speaking at Pentagon press conference, Mr. Mattis said the U.S. military “suspended several of the largest exercises but we did not suspend the rest.” He said “there are ongoing exercises all the timeon the peninsula.”
Mr. Mattis added: “So the exercises continue. What it means in practical terms is that we’re making no changes to the exercise program at this time.”
On Wednesday, Mr. Mattis issued a follow-up statement, saying only three individual military exercises had been suspended after the Singapore summit to “provide space” for U.S. diplomats to negotiate.
North Korea has suspended its missile and nuclear tests, and repatriated some remains of missing American service members from the Korean War. But so far follow-on negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang regarding the details of a nuclear disarmament deal have stalled.
Last week, the Trump administration canceled what would have been Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s fourth trip to Pyongyang for talks.
Mr. Trump said at the time that he’d told Mr. Pompeo not to go amid “sufficient progress with respect to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.”