U.S.-South Korea relations may be under more strain than meets the eye as military, economic and diplomatic disagreements increasingly test the longtime alliance.
Disputes over military commitments, trade and President Donald Trump’s outreach to North Korea have put a crimp in what has been a close, decades-long relationship between Washington and Seoul. Trump’s move to scale back the annual Ulchi Freedom Shield joint military exercises is the latest sign of that growing friction.
Trump initially announced his order to substantially reduce the exercise in a Truth Social post on Sunday.
“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,” Trump said in the Truth Social post.
North Korea fired roughly ten short-range ballistic missiles toward its eastern waters Thursday, shortly after Trump announced the shortened exercise.
The ongoing joint U.S.-South Korean exercise, Ulchi Freedom Shield, began Monday as scheduled and is continuing through Aug. 27. Trump ordered it “substantially” reduced, but officials have not publicly identified exactly which portions will be cut.
U.S. Forces Korea commander Gen. Xavier Brunson met with South Korean defense officials Tuesday to discuss plans to scale back Ulchi Freedom Shield following Trump’s directive, Reuters reported.
The shift in the U.S.-South Korean relationship is reflected in recent polling showing a sharp decline in South Korean confidence in the United States as a reliable partner.
“Recent South Korean public opinion polls show a dramatic drop in South Korean public trust toward the U.S. defense commitment in recent years,” the president of the Korea Economic Institute of America, Scott Snyder, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “These doubts are fed in part by the deployment of equipment and resources away from the Korean peninsula and in part by doubts about whether or not President Trump would be reliable in his support for South Korea in the event of a conflict.”
The share of South Koreans who described the United States as a reliable partner fell from 83% in 2022 to 57% in 2026, according to a Pew Research Center poll of 1,527 South Korean adults conducted March 2-April 16 with a 3.6-point margin of error.
“We have taken note of President Trump’s social media message today and hope that the friendly relationship between the leaders of the United States and North Korea will lead to meaningful dialogue between them, paving the way for discussions aimed at advancing peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula,” the South Korean Embassy in Washington told the DCNF. “To this end, we will continue to make the necessary diplomatic efforts as a pace maker, in close coordination with the United States.”
The U.S.-South Korean relationship was further tested on July 21, 2025, when South Korean officials raided the command-and-control center of the U.S. military’s Osan Air Base to obtain information on U.S. Air Force flights for a domestic investigation, The Korea Times reported.
The South Korean officials were looking for information on drone missions that flew over Pyongyang during October and November 2024, according to The Korea Times.
The Iran war has already placed pressure on U.S. military assets stationed on the Korean Peninsula.
South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun confirmed in March that U.S. and South Korean military officials were discussing potentially redeploying U.S. Patriot missile defense systems stationed in South Korea for use in the war against Iran, according to Reuters.
Seoul had opposed the removal but acknowledged it could not dictate where Washington deploys its forces, South Korean President Lee Jae Myung said in a March cabinet meeting.
“We’ve not moved any THAAD systems,” Brunson said. “We’re sending munitions forward … there were previous moves where radars were taken forward. This was in advance of Midnight Hammer. Some of those things have not come back [to Asia] yet.”
“The annual exercises are important to rehearse habits of cooperation that ultimately enable [the] two militaries to work together in a coordinated fashion in the event of a military conflict,” Snyder, told the DCNF. “The exercises are the same as practicing for an athletic contest or rehearsing for a play. If you don’t do it, your gametime/showtime performance will likely be marred by unnecessary mistakes and decreased competitiveness.”
“Failure to exercise will raise the likelihood of less effective performance in real time. Given troop rotation cycles, within 2-3 years, a substantial number of troops in both the U.S. and Korean militaries would no longer have the benefit of practice and would likely be less able to perform effectively in real time,” Snyder said.
Not all analysts believe that the exercises need to be completed every year to maintain readiness.
“They are very important. That said, a pause or step back from a specific exercise will not create any immediate decrement of readiness,” Heritage Foundation visiting fellow and former Pentagon official Steven Bucci told the DCNF. “North Korea is likely to claim that this is a victory for their strong stand against exercises. That is pure propaganda.”
One analyst said that if Trump aims to improve relations with North Korea, he should have informed South Korea of the decision to scale back exercises in advance.
“North Korea has long condemned US-ROK joint exercises … In my experience, the North usually pockets concessions unless an explicit understanding has been reached in advance that a positive response is expected,” Frank Jannuzi, the president of a U.S.-Asia relations-focused nonprofit, told the DCNF. “That is why it would have been wise for the United States to coordinate this move with Seoul well in advance. In order to open a dialogue channel to the North, the President should ideally coordinate well in advance with Seoul.”
The South Korean government is also currently preventing a former U.S. ambassador from leaving the country.
Tan had been visiting South Korea to monitor election fraud, the South Korean outlet Yonhap News Agency reported on June 4.
Trump became the first sitting U.S. president to set foot in North Korea when he crossed the border with Kim Jong Un at the Korean Peninsula’s Demilitarized Zone in 2019.
“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 said in his Truth Social post.
A policy brief previously released by Polaris National Security on July 8 enumerated which U.S. businesses in South Korea are coming under fire from Lee’s increasingly left-leaning government.
Fortune 150 Seattle-based tech company Coupang, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft and Google were among the businesses listed by Polaris National Security in its report. The report alleged that the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) engaged in discriminatory practices against these U.S. businesses.
A spokesperson from the South Korean Embassy in Washington previously told the DCNF that the country’s government “regrets” that the congressional report “appears to be largely based on the unilateral assertions of Coupang and respectfully disagrees with several characterizations in the report.”
“Exercises such as Ulchi Freedom Shield are essential to the ability of the U.S. and South Korea to deter North Korean aggression and maintain interoperability,” Jannuzi told the DCNF. “However, many presidents, dating back to Bill Clinton in the 90s, have calibrated the exercises to the diplomatic needs on the Peninsula.”
Iran nevertheless appears to have been the immediate trigger for Trump’s latest confrontation with Seoul.
“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 on Truth Social.
“We have actively participated in international discussions aimed at securing a ceasefire in Iran and restoring freedom of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz,” the South Korean Embassy in Washington told the DCNF. “Taking into account a range of factors, including our readiness posture on the Korean Peninsula and relevant domestic legal procedures, we are in close consultation with the United States on ways to make substantive and military contributions.”
(DCNF)