U.S. Will Resume War Games With South Korea if North Korea Fails to Act in Good Faith

U.S. Will Resume War Games With South Korea if North Korea Fails to Act in Good Faith June 13, 2018

During Tuesday’s Singapore summit, Trump agreed to stop war games with South Korea, provided North Korea began the process of denuclearization in earnest.

Today, the administration is promising to resume war games (which North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un finds a threat) if North Korea fails to keep their end of the bargain.

From TIME:

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says joint U.S.-South Korea military exercises will resume if North Korea stops negotiating in good faith over its nuclear program.

Pompeo is in South Korea a day after President Donald Trump met with Kim Jong Un and announced the U.S. would freeze what he called “war games” with North Korea.

Pompeo says he was there when Trump talked about it with Kim. He says Trump “made very clear” that the condition for the freeze was that good-faith talks continue. He says if the U.S. concludes they no longer are in good faith, the freeze “will no longer be in effect.”

Pompeo says Trump was “unambiguous” in conveying that to Kim.

Pompeo defended the summit from widespread media criticism which suggested no real progress had been made. Axios has the breakdown:

Pompeo bristled at what he called the “ludicrous” and “insulting” suggestion that Trump had not secured specific commitments from North Korea on denuclearization. He also sought to counter criticism that Trump had made the only major concession of the summit — freezing military exercises with South Korea. Pompeo said Trump “made very clear” to Kim Jong-un that the policy would only hold so long as “good faith” talks continue.


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