Seoul (AFP) - Donald Trump said he ordered the Pentagon to scale back “inappropriate and hostile” military drills with South Korea, hours before the exercises began on Monday.

The US president cited his “good relationship” with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in his latest rebuke to long-standing alliances with global partners.

South Korean officials said the exercises had begun as planned and that they hoped the personal chemistry between Trump and Kim would bring them back to talks.

North Korea has not responded publicly, although it has previously voiced anger at the regular joint manoeuvres that take place in the South.

The drills began as American allies in East Asia fret over North Korean displays of weapons capabilities and its growing alignment with Russia, as well as traditional backer China.

“Based on my very good relationship with Kim Jong Un, of North Korea, I am not happy with the fact that the United States has, long ago, agreed to participate in Joint Military Exercises with South Korea,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

“These exercises are not only costly, with much of these costs paid for by the United States of America (as usual!), but send a signal that is totally inappropriate and hostile, to a Country that, as long as Donald J. Trump has been President, has been unthreatening and respectful,” he said.

He took direct aim at South Korea, writing: “I recently asked the President of South Korea if they would like to join us in the Denuclearization of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and they said, ‘No thanks!’”

Trump said he had ordered Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to “substantially reduce” the drills because it was too late to cancel them.

The top US Senate Democrat on military affairs described Trump’s order as “inane”, and said China and Russia were “watching how easily this president abandons America’s allies”.

“This is another inane, haphazard decision by President Trump and his chaotic administration,” Senate Armed Services Committee ranking member Jack Reed said in a statement.

- ‘Friendly relationship’ -

The 11-day Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises are designed to prepare for a possible war with North Korea.

Colonel Ryan Donald, spokesman for the US and South Korean Combined Forces Command, has said they will simulate combat against North Korean troops steeled by their deployment on Russia’s side in its invasion of Ukraine.

South Korea’s defence ministry said the manoeuvres kicked off as “previously notified and scheduled”.

Seoul’s presidential office told AFP it remained in “close coordination” with Washington over the exercises.

The office “hopes that the friendly relationship between the leaders of the United States and North Korea will lead to meaningful dialogue”.

- Anxiety in Asia -

Pyongyang decries the drills as dress rehearsals for an invasion.

It recently test-fired a ballistic missile over the Sea of Japan, and warned on Friday it could respond to the exercises with a “new level of deterrent”.

During his first term, Trump said after his initial meeting with North Korea’s Kim in Singapore in June 2018 that Washington would suspend the “provocative” drills.

The United States stations about 28,500 troops in South Korea to bolster the country’s defences, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War that ended with an armistice rather than a peace treaty.

However, Trump’s repeated criticism of time-honoured alliances has cast doubt on US commitments to security in East Asia.

The announcement of the scaled down drills came as the only US aircraft carrier operating in the Pacific region, the USS George Washington, is being redeployed to the Middle East to relieve the long-deployed USS Lincoln carrier, which has been the focus of concerns over mental health and supply issues.

Asked if China supported new dialogue between the United States and North Korea, Beijing’s foreign ministry said on Monday that “maintaining peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula” was in the interests of all parties.

Taiwan relies heavily on a long-time security agreement with the United States, and President Lai Ching-te said his government would propose record defence spending equivalent to more than $35 billion for 2027.

China claims Taiwan is part of its territory and has threatened to use force to annex the self-ruled island.

- Unclear benefit -

The US-South Korean drills comprise 18,000 South Korean troops and counterparts from US forces, and will focus strongly on drone warfare, GPS disruption and the role of cyberattacks, military spokesman Donald had said.

However, Leif-Eric Easley, a professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul, told AFP that downsizing the exercise would “damage alliance coordination, slow the process of South Korea taking on greater responsibility for its own defence, and weaken deterrence against possible conflicts in Asia”.

Lim Eul-chul, a North Korea expert at Kyungnam University, said Pyongyang was unlikely to be moved by Trump’s announcement, viewing it as meaningful only if the exercises “are cancelled in their entirety rather than scaled back”.

Experts say North Korea has expanded its nuclear and missile capabilities since the breakdown of Trump’s negotiations with Kim, whom he last met in person in 2019.