President Donald Trump and his South Korean counterpart, Moon Jae-in have agreed not to conduct military exercises during the Winter Olympic Games in February, according to Korea’s presidential office.
The announcement comes after re-established communications between North and South Korea, although U.S. officials expressed skepticism on Thursday regarding Kim Jong-un sincerity in soothing tensions, CNN says.
Trump and Moon spoke by phone on Thursday, agreeing “not to host joint military drills during the period of Pyeongchang Olympics,” in South Korea which will take place from February 9 to 25. North Korea’s Kim Jong-un has long bemoaned the joint U.S.-South Korean drills, often calling them a direct threat to Pyongyang.
“America supports President Moon 100%,” Trump said to Moon during the 30-minute phone call. The president also told Moon that high-level representatives will be sent to the Winter Olympics.
On Wednesday, after about two years, Kim gave the order to revive a hotline with South Korea. Contact between Pyongyang and Seoul was made on the hotline Wednesday and Thursday.
The decision to hold off military drills comes as a bit of a surprise after Trump bragged on Twitter that he had a “much bigger & more powerful” nuclear button that Kim’s. Trump also sought to take credit for the resumption of communications between Pyongyang and Seoul on Thursday.
“With all of the failed ‘experts’ weighing in, does anybody really believe that talks and dialogue would be going on between North and South Korea right now if I wasn’t firm, strong and willing to commit our total ‘might’ against the North,” Trump’s tweet read.
Moon and Trump also spoke about the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
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