According to Yonhap, on August 28 local time, South Korean National Security Minister Wei Shengluo said that as a party and promoter of peace on the Korean Peninsula, South Korea will support the establishment of mutual trust between North Korea and the United States, enabling President Trump's efforts to restart dialogue between North Korea and the United States.
Wei Shengluo stated at a press conference that Trump has recently instructed a reduction in the scale of joint military exercises between South Korea and the United States, continuing to show his willingness to engage with the North Korean side. One of the concerns of South Korea is to maintain cooperation with the US side, to ensure the restart of dialogue between North Korea and the US, and to play a role in establishing a peaceful regime on the Korean Peninsula. At the same time, it is important to promote substantive progress on the North Korean nuclear issue. In this process, South Korea's vigilance should not waver, and there should be no situation where South Korea is excluded from these efforts. To successfully advance these tasks, it is more important than ever for South Korea and the US to maintain policy cooperation and communication.
On August 25th, Trump posted again on social media a post from 9 days prior, instructing to reduce the scale of joint military exercises between South Korea and the United States. The content of the post was almost identical to that of 9 days prior, with only the tense of some sentences changed from present tense to past tense.
Trump posted on the 16th, saying, "It's too late to cancel the (South Korean-US joint military exercises) now." He also said, "Considering my good relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, I don't like the fact that the United States has agreed to participate in these joint military exercises with South Korea for many years." When Trump re-posted his message on the 25th, he only changed the tense of some sentences to the past tense.
Yonhap pointed out that Trump usually modifies posts when he notices typos, and deletes them when they cause significant controversy. Therefore, some analysts believe that Trump only revised a few aspects of the post's tense to be more appropriate and then republished it, keeping it up to this day. This is an attempt to emphasize his willingness to restart dialogue between North Korea and the United States, and a signal of goodwill sent again to Kim Jong-un.
