U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a press conference in Singapore on June 12, 2018. (Xinhua/Zhu Hongye)
SINGAPORE, June 12 (Xinhua) -- The United States will stop holding war games with South Korea, U.S. President Donald Trump said here Tuesday after a historic summit with Kim Jong Un, top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).
Answering questions at a press conference at the Capella Hotel on Singapore's resort island of Sentosa, where his meeting with Kim took place, Trump said bringing home U.S. soldiers stationed in South Korea is currently not part of the equation.
But "we will be stopping the war games ... unless and until we see the future negotiation is not going along like it should," he said.
He added that such military drills are "very expensive" and significants costs could be saved if they ended.
The DPRK has consistently denounced the military drills as a dress rehearsal for a northward invasion.
The annual South Korea-U.S. military drills are carried out twice in spring and fall. This year, the springtime war games were conducted in April, delayed due to South Korea hosting the Winter Olympics. The autumn military drills were scheduled for August.
In a joint statement, Kim and Trump agreed to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula in exchange for security guarantees for the DPRK, something Trump has confirmed. Kim also confirmed his "unwavering" commitment to complete denuclearization.
The U.S. president said he ultimately wanted to bring the U.S. soldiers stationed in South Korea home, although currently he had no plan to scale back the U.S. military presence there.
About 28,500 U.S. troops are currently stationed in South Korea as a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War.
During his talks with Trump, Kim said his country is ready to destroy its major missile engine testing site.
Pyongyang already blew up its Punggye-ri nuclear test site, where the country conducted all of its six nuclear tests.
Trump said his meeting with Kim was honest, bold and productive, noting that Kim was firm about denuclearization.
Before the press conference, Trump said at the signing ceremony with Kim that the denuclearization process would begin "very quickly," adding that he would meet the DPRK leader several more times.
Trump told reporters that he would invite Kim to the White House and visit Pyongyang at an appropriate time, adding that U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and National Security Advisor John Bolton would meet with DPRK officials next week for further nuclear talks.
