SEOUL, Aug 19 (Bernama-Xinhua) -- South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun learned of South Korea-US military drill cuts from US President Donald Trump's social media as Seoul received no advance notice, Xinhua reported on Wednesday, citing local media.
Cho told the parliamentary committee for foreign affairs and unification that neither South Korean nor US government officials had any knowledge of President Trump’s social media post, adding that Seoul consequently received no advance notification.
He explained that South Korean Defence Minister Ahn Gyu-back had been in close consultation with the US side since the post appeared, emphasising that it was not a unilateral notification, as the defence minister was consulting with the US side.
South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said earlier in the day that the duration of the ongoing joint military exercise with the US, Ulchi Freedom Shield (UFS), will be cut from Aug 17-27 to Aug 17-21.
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 defence ministry building on Tuesday.
The UFS is a summertime South Korea-US joint military exercise featuring field manoeuvres, computer-simulated command post exercises and civil defence drills.
-- BERNAMA-XINHUA
BERNAMA provides up-to-date authentic and comprehensive news and information which are disseminated via BERNAMA Wires; www.bernama.com; BERNAMA TV on Astro 502, unifi TV 631 and MYTV 121 channels and BERNAMA Radio on FM93.9 (Klang Valley), FM107.5 (Johor Bahru), FM107.9 (Kota Kinabalu) and FM100.9 (Kuching) frequencies.
Follow us on social media :
Facebook : @bernamaofficial, @bernamatv, @bernamaradio
Twitter : @bernama.com, @BernamaTV, @bernamaradio
Instagram : @bernamaofficial, @bernamatvofficial, @bernamaradioofficial
TikTok : @bernamaofficial
