S. Korean military says joint exercise with US to end earlier

SEOUL - South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said Wednesday that the duration of the ongoing joint military exercise with the United States, Ulchi Freedom Shield (UFS), will be cut from Aug 17-27 to Aug 17-21.

The JCS said in a statement that the joint exercise, which kicked off Monday, will end Friday to partially adjust the duration and scale of the drills following the proposal from the US side.

The military explained that the two sides agreed to partially scale down the combined field training exercises while currently consulting on the specific details.

US President Donald Trump said on Aug 16 (local time) that he had instructed the Pentagon to scale back joint South Korea-US military exercises significantly, and Commander of the US Forces Korea Xavier Brunson visited South Korea's defense ministry building Tuesday.

The UFS is a summertime South Korea-US joint military exercise featuring field maneuvers, computer-simulated command post exercises and civil defense drills.