The United States cancels an upcoming joint amphibious landing drill with South Korea, Seoul’s Marine Corps says. The exercise, known as Ssangyong, was scheduled for next month and typically involves coordinated amphibious operations with U.S. and South Korean marine forces.
Seoul says Washington cites constraints on the availability of U.S. forces linked to the war in Iran. The U.S. Marine Corps formally notifies its South Korean counterpart in June that deploying enough forces for the division-level Ssangyong exercise would be difficult, and the cancellation is communicated to South Korea later as preparations move forward. Several outlets also link the decision to President Donald Trump’s earlier surprise order to scale back another separate annual joint military exercise earlier in the month, with Trump publicly citing cost and South Korea’s position on participation in the Iran conflict.
Outlets largely agree on the reason and timing—force constraints attributed to the Iran war and an advance June notice—while differing mainly in how prominently they connect the cancellation to the earlier reduction of another drill and in the amount of detail provided about the Ssangyong exercise format.
