A planned training exercise involving U.S. B-52 bombers and South Korean planes was scrapped earlier this week after the South Korean government expressed concerns that it could generate tensions before a planned summit meeting between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, according to U.S. officials.
Key Words: Trump follows lead of South Korea’s Moon: What matters is the peace, not the prize[1]
The move follows repeated assertions by the Trump administration that it is keeping up a campaign of maximum economic and military pressure until North Korea gives up its nuclear-weapons programs and that the U.S. hasn’t changed the scope of its exercises.
But the South Koreans asked not to participate in what was intended to be a three-nation air drill involving the U.S., South Korea and Japan, the U.S. officials said. The U.S., which has sought to maintain political solidarity with Seoul during a turbulent period of diplomacy with North Korea, hasn’t commented publicly on the South Korean decision.
An expanded version of this report appears at WSJ.com.[2]
Trending at WSJ.com:
References
- ^ Trump follows lead of South Korea’s Moon: What matters is the peace, not the prize (www.marketwatch.com)
- ^ An expanded version of this report appears at WSJ.com. (www.wsj.com)
- ^ More than 100 dead after Cuba plane crash (www.wsj.com)
- ^ Starbucks rest rooms open to all visitors (www.wsj.com)