South Korean President Lee Jae Myung called on 18 August 2026 for his country to accelerate its long-stalled bid to reclaim wartime operational control of its own armed forces, days after Donald Trump ordered the Pentagon to scale back joint military exercises with Seoul. Lee also urged faster work on acquiring nuclear-powered submarines and on training officers for integrated future combat, framing both goals as complementary to, not a departure from, the US alliance.
Speaking at a cabinet meeting, Lee argued that a more capable South Korean military would strengthen rather than weaken the partnership with Washington.
A strong alliance makes the foundation of security stronger, and strengthening our own capabilities increases our value and necessity as an ally.
The transfer of wartime operational control, known as Opcon, would give a South Korean commander rather than an American four-star general authority over South Korean forces in the event conflict resumes with the North. The two Koreas have technically remained at war since the 1953 armistice ended fighting without a peace treaty, and Seoul has sought the handover for more than two decades, only for successive governments to delay it. Seoul already regained peacetime command of its forces in 1994, but wartime authority has stayed with the US-led Combined Forces Command ever since.
Why is this issue resurfacing now?
The renewed push follows Trump's instruction to the Pentagon on 16 August 2026 to cut back the Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise, which began the next day as planned despite his order, according to South Korea's defense ministry. Trump justified the reduction by pointing to what he described as a warm rapport with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, telling reporters that Pyongyang had been unthreatening and that his personal relationship with Kim had made the region safer.
You see, I'm actually making it much safer. Kim Jong-un has always treated me with great respect. I understand him. He understands me.
When pressed in the Oval Office about the status of contacts with Pyongyang, Trump said Kim had responded to his order but gave no further detail, describing the exchange only as "very positive". This is not the first time Trump has curtailed joint drills to pursue diplomacy with Kim: after their first summit in 2018, that year's Ulchi Freedom exercise was called off and other exercises were suspended or scaled down, before being redesigned and resumed under new names.
The move also follows Lee's own diplomatic overture. Earlier in August, as reported in our earlier coverage, Lee proposed formal talks with North Korea aimed at ending the Korean War and offered a renewed security and denuclearisation framework, a sign his government is pursuing engagement with Pyongyang on parallel diplomatic and military tracks.
What do the current drills involve, and why does it matter?
Ulchi Freedom Shield, one of two major annual US-South Korea exercises, was expected to run for ten days from 17 August 2026 and involve roughly 18,000 South Korean troops alongside American personnel and forces from 11 of the 18 member states of the United Nations Command, the multinational body overseeing the armistice. According to , the exercise is scheduled to continue through 27 August and includes counter-drone, GPS-disruption and cyberattack drills. The United States currently maintains about 28,500 troops in South Korea, a figure cited in reporting on the drawdown by Politico.
US and South Korean officers say the exercise had already been redesigned to reflect lessons Pyongyang has drawn from sending troops to fight in Ukraine, under a comprehensive military partnership Moscow and Pyongyang signed in June 2024. Colonel Ryan Donald, public affairs director for the US-led commands in South Korea, said North Korea's battlefield experience with drones had directly shaped this year's training.
They've taken those lessons they learned there and brought them back to North Korea, that changes the DPRK capability. Our training accounts for that threat, that is why the exercise looks different [from previous exercises], and over the last five years it's continually evolved.
Seoul's presidential office sought to lower tensions around the drills, insisting they carry no offensive intent.
[The exercises reflect] not... any intention to attack North Korea or escalate tensions on the Korean peninsula... [but seek] not to treat a specific entity as an adversary, but to safeguard the safe and peaceful daily lives of the people.
How does this connect to South Korea's wider defence buildup?
South Korea's defense ministry has designated 2026 as the first year of a formal push to set a concrete timeline for the Opcon transfer, according to the Korea Times. Annual exercises such as Ulchi Freedom Shield double as a test bed for assessing whether South Korean forces are ready to assume wartime command, a role confirmed by Yonhap. Separately, Lee's submarine ambitions centre on a program known as Jangbogo-N, which is being designed around low-enriched uranium fuel with a target of fielding a lead vessel by the mid-2030s, according to UPI.
Our earlier reporting noted that Trump's cutback order came even as North Korea publicly denounced the drills and as the exercise nonetheless began on schedule, a sequence detailed in our coverage of the order. That same account also noted Trump had cited his rapport with Kim as the rationale, a detail he has repeated publicly since first announcing his intention to cut the drills on 16 August 2026.
What happens next?
Ulchi Freedom Shield is due to run until 27 August 2026, with South Korean and US commanders expected to use the exercise to evaluate what remains outstanding before wartime command can be transferred, according to Yonhap. Seoul intends to press for a firm handover timeline at security talks with Washington scheduled for October 2026, per the Korea Times report. Lee's government has signalled it will keep pursuing both the submarine program and the Opcon transfer as parallel priorities regardless of the outcome of Trump's diplomatic outreach to Pyongyang.
Key Facts
- Lee Jae Myung called for accelerated transfer of wartime operational control (Opcon) and faster nuclear-submarine development at an 18 August 2026 cabinet meeting.
- Trump ordered the Pentagon to scale back the Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise on 16 August 2026, citing his relationship with Kim Jong-un; the drills nonetheless began on 17 August as planned.
- The exercise, running through 27 August 2026, involves about 18,000 South Korean troops, US personnel and forces from 11 UN Command member states.
- The US maintains roughly 28,500 troops in South Korea; wartime command has rested with a US-led Combined Forces Command since the 1953 armistice.
- South Korea plans to press for a formal Opcon transfer timeline at security talks with the US scheduled for October 2026.
