Trump praises Kim Jong Un as ‘respectful’ and orders US-South Korea military drills scaled back, while again attacking Seoul for refusing to join his effort against Iran and signaling he wants to revive direct diplomacy with Pyongyangynet|In a post on Truth Social, Trump said his “very good relationship” with Kim was one reason he opposed the scale of longstanding joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises, arguing that the drills were costly and sent an unnecessarily hostile message to Pyongyang.“Based on my very good relationship with Kim Jong Un, of North Korea, I was not happy with the fact that the United States had, long ago, agreed to participate in Joint Military Exercises with South Korea,” Trump wrote.“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.”June 12, 2018: Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un at their historic summit in Singapore (Photo: AFP)Trump said it was already too late to cancel the exercises entirely and that he had instead ordered them scaled back.“Therefore, and based on the fact that it was too late to cancel, I instructed Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, to substantially reduce the Joint Military Exercises!” he wrote.Trump then again linked his criticism of Seoul to South Korea’s refusal to participate in his policy toward Iran.“While somewhat unrelated (?), 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 wrote.It was the second time in roughly a week that Trump had invoked South Korea’s stance on Iran while arguing for reduced military cooperation with Seoul. He first announced the move in a post on Truth Social, drawing immediate responses on both sides of the Korean Peninsula.In North Korea, Kim Yo Jong, the influential sister of Kim Jong Un, argued that the United States had not meaningfully reduced its military cooperation with Seoul despite Trump’s announcement. South Korea’s Defense Ministry, meanwhile, said the joint exercises with U.S. forces would proceed as planned.The exercises have long been condemned by Pyongyang, which portrays them as rehearsals for an invasion. Washington and Seoul have traditionally described them as defensive and necessary to maintain military readiness on the peninsula.Trump’s latest comments come as he pushes for another face-to-face meeting with Kim, reviving the highly personal diplomacy that became a defining feature of his North Korea policy during his first term.The Wall Street Journal reported last week, citing U.S. officials, that Trump was seeking another meeting with the North Korean leader as early as this fall. According to the report, Trump has privately discussed the possibility of meeting Kim during his next trip to Asia, which could take place in November around the APEC summit in Shenzhen, China.Trump and Kim met three times during Trump’s first term, beginning with their historic summit in Singapore on June 12, 2018. They met again in Hanoi in 2019 and later that year at the Korean Demilitarized Zone.The encounters produced an extraordinary period of direct diplomacy between Washington and Pyongyang but failed to result in a lasting agreement on North Korea’s nuclear program.Trump is now signaling that he wants to revive that channel, while again portraying his personal relationship with Kim as an asset and questioning the military cooperation that has for decades been at the center of the U.S.-South Korean alliance.