N. Korean criticism raises concerns that scaled-back military drills have reaped little payoff

The U.S. and South Korea have canceled some annual military exercises and changed the names of others. Commanders no longer publicly profess their resolve to confront the growing nuclear threat from the North.

The allies have drastically altered the way they train to avoid provoking the communist state since President Donald Trump announced plans to suspend “the war games” after his first summit with Kim Jong Un on June 12 in Singapore.

North Korea’s response?

“They can never conceal the aggressive, offensive and confrontational nature of their hostile acts no matter how hard they may try to give impression about ‘reduction in scope’ by replacing the codename,” the state-run Korean Central News Agency said Thursday.

Read the full article and more in Stars and Stripes.