SEOUL: Foreign Minister Cho Hyun (pic) said Wednesday (Aug 19) that South Korea received no prior notice concerning Washington's decision to scale down the Korea-US joint military exercise before US President Donald Trump's social media post on Sunday.
"Neither our government nor US government officials were aware of what was revealed on Trump's post on Truth Social, so we had not received any prior notification," Cho told the Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee at the National Assembly.
This was in response to People Power Party Representative Kim Dai-sik's inquiry as to when Seoul was notified of the US decision to scale back the annual Ulchi Freedom Shield drills.
Regarding the US' surprise announcement Wednesday of its decision to halve the 11-day joint drill, Cho said, "We understand that the minister of national defence has been consulting closely with the US side after Trump's post."
"The Foreign Ministry believes the decision was made through such consultations, but we have not received detailed information from the Defence Ministry," he also said, adding he believed the US announcement was not made unilaterally. - The Korea Herald/ANN
