US Defense Secretary James Mattis on Tuesday hinted that the United States may resume its military exercises with the Republic of Korea (ROK).
In a press briefing, Mattis said that "we took the step to suspend several of the largest exercises as a good-faith measure coming out of the Singapore summit."
US Secretary of Defense James Mattis speaks during a press briefing at the Pentagon on August 28, 2018 in Arlington, Virginia. /VCG Photo
"We have no plans at this time to suspend any more exercises," he said, adding that no decisions have yet been made on major exercises for next year.
Washington has not made decisions on whether to continue suspending major military exercises with the ROK for next year, he said.
"We are going to see how the negotiations go, and then we will calculate the future, how we go forward," Mattis said.
The Pentagon said on June 22 that it has "indefinitely" suspended two military exercise programs with the ROK to support the agreements between US President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un, top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).
The ROK's Marine amphibious assault vehicles are seen after arriving at a port during a joint military exercise in Pohang, April 5, 2018. /VCG Photo
According to a statement released by Pentagon spokesperson Dana White, Mattis has indefinitely suspended select exercises, including "FREEDOM GUARDIAN along with two Korean Marine Exchange Program training exercises scheduled to occur in the next three months."
Earlier on June 18, the Pentagon said that it had suspended all planning for the joint military drills with the ROK in August, referring to an annual ROK-US military exercise slated for August with the full name of Ulchi Freedom Guardian.
Pyongyang has denounced the exercises as a rehearsal for northward invasion and a violation of the spirit of the Panmunjom Declaration issued during the inter-Korean summit in late April.
Trump met with Kim on June 12, when they promised to build new bilateral relations and work toward a "complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula."
The ROK's activists hold placards showing images of the Trump-Kim summit (L) and a ROK-US joint military drill (R) during a rally to demand a halt to the Ulchi Freedom Guardian (UFG), a joint computer-simulated military exercise, near the US embassy in Seoul , June 15, 2018. /VCG Photo
After the meeting, Trump said the United States would stop war games with the ROK "unless and until we see the future negotiation is not going along like it should." He also said the drills were "very expensive" and "provocative" "war games."
Last year's Ulchi Freedom Guardian, attended by about 17,500 US military forces, went on for 11 days.
Another major US exercises with the ROK, code-named Key Resolve and Foal Eagle, took place earlier this spring.