The United States has cancelled this year's Ssangyong amphibious exercise with South Korea, the second joint drill curtailed in a week as American forces are drawn toward the Middle East. "The US Marine Corps formally notified our forces in June that its ability to deploy forces during this year's Ssangyong exercise would be constrained due to the situation in the Middle East," Han Seung-jeon, a spokesman for the South Korean side, said. Seoul and Washington are continuing consultations on resuming the exercise, he said, without giving details.
Ssangyong is held every two years and brings together marine forces from both countries, typically putting warships, aircraft and ground units through rehearsed amphibious landings. It is designed to strengthen combined operations between the two militaries. The Marine Corps notification reached Seoul in June, two months before the cancellation became public.
The cancellation lands days after 
Donald Trump ordered a separate annual exercise cut short. Ulchi Freedom Shield, which ended last Friday, ran for five days instead of the scheduled eleven, Al Jazeera reported, an order Trump tied to the cost of the drills and to Seoul's refusal to join the war on Iran.
Writing on his Truth Social platform last week, Trump said the Ulchi Freedom Shield drills sent "a signal that was totally inappropriate and hostile, to a Country that, as long as Donald J. Trump has been President, has been unthreatening." Channel News Asia carried the same account of the order from Seoul. He has separately sought to revive the relationship he built with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during his first term.
Figures referenced: Donald Trump. — JudgeMarket.
