President Trump’s Korean Intervention: The Latest Twist in the Saga of the Two Koreas, with A Backstory
A scaled-down version of Ulchi Freedom Shield 2026, an annual 11-day series of US-South Korean joint military exercises, commenced on 17 August 2026 as originally planned. The exercise, which is due to end on 27 August, will involve 18,000 South Korean troops working alongside US and UN forces. On the day Ulchi Freedom Shield began, President Donald J. Trump publicly confirmed his dissatisfaction with the Republic of Korea (ROK), or South Korea. He said at the Oval Office in the White House: “We have 39,000 soldiers over there, guarding you from Kim Jong Un, your next-door neighbour, and you’re not going to help us on a very easy military operation in Iran.” In keeping with the transactional nature of his decision-making on the international stage and his admiration for ‘strong men’, he went on to praise the leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), or North Korea: “Kim Jong Un has always treated me with great nature. I understand him. He understands me.”
The previous day, Trump had posted on Truth Social that the Pentagon would “substantially reduce” the joint military exercises, which were “not only costly” but “send a signal that it is totally inappropriate and hostile, to a Country that…has been unthreatening and respectful.” There was, however, no other option, given that it was “too late to cancel.”
President Trump’s words need not come as a total surprise. The US Department of War’s 2026 National Defence Strategy recognises that “the DPRK poses a direct military threat to the Republic of Korea (ROK) as well as to Japan” and that “South Korea must stay vigilant against the threat of a North Korean invasion.” At the same time, as part of a wider American strategy to redistribute the burden of collective defence more equally with its partners, South Korea will need to “step up” and “take primary responsibility for deterring North Korea with critical but more limited support.”
Korea, an ethnically, culturally, and linguistically homogeneous nation for over a millennium before coming under Japanese occupation from 1910 to 1945, was carved up into two distinct entities by the growing ideological divide of the Cold War in the aftermath of Japan’s surrender to the Allies in September 1945. The 38th Parallel (latitude 380 N) was chosen, somewhat arbitrarily, but also roughly equitably, by two US State Department officials, as a temporary border between the Soviet and American zones of occupation in North and South Korea, respectively. The ROK was subsequently formed in the South in August 1948, followed by the DPRK the following month in the North. Both countries eventually joined the United Nations in 1991.
The 1950-1953 Korean War was precipitated by North Korea’s invasion of the South, with Chinese and Soviet support, in June 1950. The “Forgotten War”, in which around two million people lost their lives, ended with an armistice, signed at the village of Panmunjom in July 1953. The end of hostilities was followed by the creation of a 2.5-mile-wide, 155-mile long Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) from coast to coast. The DMZ has served as a buffer zone and a de facto boundary between the two countries to this day. A formal peace treaty has yet to be been signed.
Article 2 of the Mutual Defence Treaty between the United States and the Republic of Korea, signed on 1 October 1953, requires cooperation in the event that “the political independence or security of either of the Parties is threatened by external armed attack.” Article 4 allows for the stationing of US land, air, and sea forces in and about the territory of the ROK. Currently, around 28, 500 American troops are stationed in South Korea.
The relationship between the two Koreas has remained on tenterhooks ever since their creation, marked by infrequent cross-border skirmishes and exchanges of fire, spy scandals, assassination attempts, cyberattacks, and more. Past attempts at reconciliation have not amounted to much in the long-term. The July 4 North-South Communique, signed on 4 July 1972, laid out a roadmap for peaceful reunification, but the journey never commenced. A glimmer of hope was provided when Kim Jong-un visited the South for the first time in April 2018. The leaders of the DPRK (Kim Jong-un) and the ROK (Moon Jae-in) signed the Panmunjom Declaration for Peace, Prosperity, and Reunification of the Korean Peninsula on 27 April. The agreement has since been suspended by both parties-the DPRK on 23 November 2023 and the ROK on 4 June 2024. The divisions remain so deep-seated that even cultural ties have not been re-established in any meaningful way. The musical phenomenon of K-Pop has become a popular global export from the South, but remains banned under threat of execution in the North.
Trump has departed from America’s allies in his overtures to, and fulsome praise of, North Korea’s leader, becoming the first and only Western leader thus far to meet with Kim Jong- un- at summits in Singapore (June 2018) and Hanoi (February 2019). The Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise was previously scaled back following his first summit in 2018, but nothing tangible resulted from either summit.
While “denuclearisation” of the Iran is a major concern for the US, it must be noted that DPRK conducted its first nuclear test as far back as October 2006, has an operational nuclear arsenal, and continues to conduct ballistic missile tests for “self-defence” in an uncompromising show of strength. The DPRK has also signed a comprehensive strategic partnership pact with Russia in June 2024, as part of the newly-realigning world order.
Despite all attempts at reconciliation and reunification over the last eight decades, the Korean Peninsula remains strongly divided between two states with diverging trajectories. The growing economic divide between the North and South means that the potential costs of reunification, were it ever to happen, will be high. Most recently, the DPRK’s Supreme People’s Assembly passed a constitutional revision in March 2026 removing all references to reunification, despite South Korea’s continued commitment to shared nationhood. A durable solution to the Korean problem remains elusive and a long-lasting peace, with a guarantee of regional security, seems at best a distant prospect.
Ashis Banerjee