Dong Maeng

{{Short description|U.S.–South Korea military exercises}}

Dong Maeng (hangul 동맹, hanja 同盟, meaning "Alliance") is a joint military exercise between the United States Forces Korea and the Republic of Korea Armed Forces. The exercise, first introduced in 2019, is intended to be a smaller scale version of the bigger exercises Foal Eagle and Key Resolve. According to Patrick Shanahan who was the acting Secretary of Defense at the time that the exercise was launched, the scaled down exercise was designed "to reduce tensions and support our diplomatic efforts to achieve complete denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula in a final, fully verified manner."{{cite news|title=South Korea, US to replace massive springtime military drills with 'Dong Maeng' exercise|url= https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/south-korea-us-to-replace-massive-springtime-military-drills-with-dong-maeng-exercise| date=March 3, 2019|publisher=The Straits Times}} The first exercise was held March 4 thru 12 of 2019, and the second held August 5 thru 20 of 2019.{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/north-korea-denounces-scaled-back-us-south-korea-military-exercises/2019/03/07/b90e7508-40d5-11e9-85ad-779ef05fd9d8_story.html|title= North Korea denounces scaled-back U.S.-South Korea military exercises| date=March 7, 2019| first=Simon| last= Denyer| newspaper=The Washington Post}}{{cite news|url=https://www.npr.org/2019/07/16/742129952/irate-over-military-exercises-north-korea-threatens-to-resume-nuclear-missile-te|title=Irate Over Military Exercises, North Korea Threatens To Resume Nuclear, Missile Tests|publisher=National Public Radio|date=July 16, 2019|first=Sasha|last=Ingber}}{{cite news|title=S. Korea-U.S. military exercise begins despite N. Korea warnings|url=https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2019/08/c552656b8998-s-korea-us-military-exercise-begins-despite-n-korea-warnings.html|publisher=Kyodo News|date=Aug 5, 2019}}

During the August exercise, US President Donald Trump referred to the exercise as "ridiculous and expensive".{{cite news|url=https://www.vox.com/2019/8/10/20799714/north-korea-missile-test-donald-trump-letter-kim-jong-un-south-korea-military-exercises|title=North Korea dislikes US-South Korea military exercises. Apparently, Trump does too|first= Riley|last= Beggin|date=August 10, 2019|publisher=Vox}} A few days after the conclusion of the exercise, Trump called joint military exercises between the US and South Korea "unnecessary" and a "total waste of money".{{cite news|url=https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2019/08/205_274550.html|date=August 26, 2019|title=Trump calls S. Korea-US joint military drills 'total waste of money'|publisher=The Korea Times}}

North Korea regards the exercise as inconsistent with the 2018 Panmunjom and Pyongyang Declarations which emphasized a de-escalation of military hostilities.{{cite web |url=https://www.38north.org/2019/09/vvandiependdepetris090519/ |title=Putting North Korea's New Short-Range Missiles Into Perspective |author1=Vann H. Van Diepen |author2=Daniel R. DePetris |publisher=38m |date=5 September 2019 |accessdate=15 September 2019}}