South Korean President Moon Jae-In on Thursday said that his country must be flexible in regards to military pressure on North Korea if denuclearization talks are serious and added that military exercises with the U.S. would be reviewed.
Reuters reports that Moon told reporters that further changes to plans for military drills with U.S. forces would be considered after President Trump announced the U.S. would halt war games with South Korea amid a historic summit between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
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“If North Korea sincerely carries out denuclearization steps and North Korea’s dialogue with the South and the United States to resolve hostilities goes well, it will be necessary to flexibly change military pressure against the North to abide by the spirit of the Panmunjom Declaration,” Moon said, pointing to an agreement made by him and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in April to have a better relationship between the two countries.
Moon added that South Korea would carefully consider the prospect of future military drills with the U.S., and asked his advisers to cooperate with U.S. strategy towards the North.
Trump pointed to the games’ provocative nature and high costs this week when asked why the U.S. made the decision to halt the exercises.
“The amount of money that we spend on that is incredible, and South Korea contributes, but not a hundred percent,” Trump said. “Number one, we save money. A lot. And number two, it really is something I think [North Korea] very much appreciated.”
“We haven’t given up anything,” he added.
The initial announcement of the end of the war games exercises appeared to take South Korean officials off guard. They asked for clarification in an official statement from the presidential Blue House earlier in the week.
“At this point, we need to find out the precise meaning or intentions of President Trump’s remarks,” the Blue House said in a statement.