The United States has canceled a joint military exercise with South Korea scheduled for September due to force availability constraints caused by the war with Iran, the South Korean military announced today.
“The U.S. Marine Corps officially informed our forces in June that the capacity to deploy troops for this year’s Ssangyong exercise would be limited due to the situation in the Middle East,” said South Korean Marines spokesperson Han Seung-jeon.
Seoul and Washington are holding consultations to resume the joint amphibious landing exercise, Han added during a press conference without providing further details, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP). The Pentagon, headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, did not immediately respond to contacts from AFP.
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The announcement comes a week after U.S. President Donald Trump reduced the duration of the annual military exercises conducted with Seoul to counter potential threats from nuclear-armed North Korea. Trump assured that he would meet later this year with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
The meeting, the fourth between Trump and Kim, could take place in November on the sidelines of the APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) summit in China, several observers suggested. Trump also provided an unusual and very precise official estimate of the North Korean nuclear arsenal on Wednesday, announcing that the Asian country possesses “57 nuclear weapons.”
South Korean Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-back stated before Parliament the following day that the government in Seoul estimated the number of nuclear weapons held by the North at “around 80 to 120.”
