US, South Korea scale back military exercise

The United States and South Korea have scaled down an annual joint military exercise scheduled for the spring of 2019 to facilitate nuclear talks with North Korea, US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis said Wednesday.

"Foal Eagle is being reorganised a bit to keep it at a level that will not be harmful to diplomacy," Mattis said, adding that it would be "reduced in scope."
But more recently progress in talks with the North has stalled, with the US pushing to maintain sanctions against it until its "final, fully verified denuclearisation" and Pyongyang condemning US demands as "gangster-like."
Seoul's defence ministry said Mattis' comments were in line with their shared view on the need to back diplomacy -- but a spokeswoman added that the question of whether the exercises will take place at all was "still under discussion."