Trump wants to be friends with Kim - but South Korea could pay the price - BBC

South Korea's annual Ulchi Freedom Shield military exercise with the US ended abruptly on Friday with only half its program complete, days after President Trump ordered the Pentagon to "substantially reduce" the drill.
The exercise involved 18,000 South Korean troops alongside forces from the US and 11 other allied nations; Trump called it "inappropriate and hostile" toward North Korea and costly for the US.
The decision caught Seoul off guard, with Foreign Minister Cho Hyun admitting officials had no advance notice, despite trying to frame it as a mutual agreement. The move has also unsettled Taiwan and Japan.
Trump said he expects to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un later this year, reviving concerns in Seoul that diplomacy could come with demands for cash and South Korean military support against Iran.
Analysts, including the Atlantic Council's Jo Bee-yun, warn the unilateral move has shaken South Korean confidence in the US, raising fears Trump could withdraw the 27,000 US troops stationed there or abandon the goal of denuclearizing North Korea without consulting Seoul.
North Korea has continued its provocations, launching ballistic missiles toward Japan before the drill and again on Thursday, while reiterating its claimed right to use nuclear weapons if threatened; the two Koreas remain technically at war, and Kim abandoned reunification as an ideological goal in 2024.