The Associated Press reports:

North Korea on Friday threatened unspecified stern steps against the United States and South Korea ahead of their upcoming military drills, which Pyongyang called a war rehearsal that would be more provocative than last year.

The warning is typical of the harsh rhetoric that North Korea often deploys ahead of major U.S.-South Korean military exercises and suggests the country could conduct more missile tests in coming days. Experts say North Korea has often used its rivals’ drills as a pretext to ramp up its testing activities to expand its weapons arsenals and promote public support for leader Kim Jong Un. [Continue reading…]

Brad Lendon writes:

President Donald Trump’s sudden announcement the US is scaling back major military drills with South Korea risks renewing concerns US forces are too stretched to support crucial Western allies or maintain deterrence against autocracies that threaten them.

It’s also a gift to North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un at a time when he has ramped up his own nation’s threat to global stability –– and offered no concessions in return.

Just as the 10-day Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises involving tens of thousands of troops were set to begin, Trump said he had ordered the war games scaled back because North Korea has been “unthreatening and respectful” to his administration. [Continue reading…]

Tom Nichols writes:

Scaling back the exercise is, of course, an insane decision, which does nothing but hurt an ally, and tempt an adversary to think—correctly—that American leadership is feckless. You could be forgiven for wondering why South Korea and the rest of the free world must pay for Donald Trump’s failures [after going to war against Iran]. Such confusion is understandable, except that in Trump’s world, every loss, every defeat, is a personal insult. When things go wrong, someone must be held responsible—and that someone is never Donald Trump.

America and the rest of the world are now witnessing a public exhibition of narcissistic rage. Trump embarked on a war for personal glory, and what he got instead was ongoing humiliation. He clearly finds it all unbearable.

Trump both fears and respects the autocrats who rule Russia, China, and North Korea, and so he dares not cross them. Instead, he is seeking to assuage the psychic injury of his loss in Iran—including the American public learning of the shameful conditions to which he has subjected U.S. forces—by kicking America’s allies, the nations he can punish without fear that they will kick him back. [Continue reading…]