What is your opinion on Donald Trump agreeing to cease all US/ROK joint training exercises?

CPT Jack Durish, thanks for a well-reasoned response.

MAJ Eugene Chu, MBA That's perplexing. A photo of a casket being exchanged at the border from North Korean to American service men was published. Practice?

We did not get "A promise to destroy nuclear production and testing facilities." All we got was an agreement to "work toward the denuclearization of Korea.

He is not even doing that:

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/north-korea-upgrades-nuclear-facility-despite-trump-kim-summit-satellite-images-show/ar-AAzgYG5

Gotta disagree with you, Capt. 1. That test facility was destroyed because it was no longer needed(Kim met his goals for testing) and all known intel indicate it was damaged and no longer usable after his last test. 2. 'Normalizing' relations til Kim gets what he wants is part of his MO. All the 'feel goods' and 'warm fuzzies' are good PR and take advantage of the SK President desire to normalize. 3. Whose bodies are in those caskets? Just because that's what Kim says doesn't mean it is. Nothing has been verified yet. Who was it said, Trust, but verify? With Kim you verify and don't trust. Bottom line...What does Kim really want?

I am concerned that two idiots(Kim and Trump) will get mad one day and in a tantrum try to destroy the other and US with it. I trust NONE of what is happening UNTIL verified. Neither know how to treat others (one is a mass murderer-Kim; the other is a manchild who puts us in danger and goes golfing at his resorts and makes money and cons Americans,example Trump University AND grabs women because he is wealthy and thinks he can get away with it). Both need to be taken out of office and someone MATURE put in place so that diplomacy AND leadership WILL work.

PFC Pamala (Hall ) Foster - Have you turned on a TV or fired up the internet recently? We are witnessing a unbelievable turn of events on the Korean peninsula. Nothing permanent yet but we are definitely moving in the right direction.

CMSgt (Join to see) - We are going in the right direction-it took YEARS of work and I am afraid that they will get into a 'fit' and push that button. Trump was in office when this occurred. Just hope it is genuine and NOT a ploy CMSgt Parrish. Both men know how to play games and that history worries me in more than one way.

I am skeptical as well but encouraged by recent events. I certainly think were are in a better place today than were were yesterday. Time will tell.

Thank you. That is the information and evaluation I was hoping to get.

Thanks for the comment. I agree.

CPT George Langley - I did not vote for Candidate Trump. I could not in good conscience vote for him or any other candidate that ran for President in 2016. I found his temperament repellant and his morals questionable. Although, so far I approve of what his administration is accomplishing; I am to date unwilling to vote for him in 2020.

I deployed to Korea on a WestPac and have an older brother who served in the JSA for just under 4 years from 1970-1974.

I don't give a hoot what he said to the press. It is in no way binding. No argument from me that President Trump is undisciplined in what he says to the press, how he says it, and the words he chooses.

“At some point, I hope it would be. We will stop the war games, which will save us a tremendous amount of money,” Trump said. “UNLESS AND UNTIL [emphasis mine] we see the future negotiations [with North Korea] is not going along like it should. We will be saving a tremendous amount of money. Plus, it is very provocative.”

"Unless and until" says it all... If Chairman Kim and the DKRP are not acting in good faith, our policies and posture on the Korean Peninsula goes back to what it was. That's basic horse training; any step in the right direction lessens the pressure applied. Any step in the wrong direction sees an immediate and significant increase in the pressure applied.

"Plus, it is very provocative." Undoubtedly to the DKRP it is very provocative. The thought of a US led regime change is a real concern to Chairman Kim and the DKRP. Let's be honest, if it was not for The People's Republic of China, we'd have "spread some democracy" all over the DKRP. Nothing has been accomplished in lessening the tensions on the Korean peninsula in my lifetime. This is the first possibility I've seen. I think anyone who denies that is not being intellectually honest. Granted the DKRP has a history of not negotiating in good faith, but just exactly what is lost if 1 year from today, the Trump administration throws up its hands and says "BS" and returns to military exercises and sanctions?

The definition of insanity is to keep doing the same thing and to expect different results.

President Trump is most certainly flawed. However, as far as I am concerned; if you are trying to argue that President Trump is weak, you haven't made your case.

Well, this last answer is not the one I expected. I congratulate you on your reasoning and I share much of it. It is time for our side and their side to stop glaring at each other over the mines and barbed wire. But... NK is also guilty of doing the same thing over and over again, so they are just as crazy as we are, and then some since they, not us, are the ones who are starving. They could have stopped their nuke development much sooner, as they have promised over and over. They could have reduced their military.They could have said "You know what? We are happy to stick to our little piece of land and let you stick to yours." That hasn't happened yet. Instead NK's economy is based on its military and its repression. It is not about to change that, nor is it about to stop training its conventional forces. But we are.
In fact, I will go so far as to say it is not Kim, but his military that are really in charge of NK. We have been told that he can have anyone he wants executed, even his own family and especially his generals, but I strongly suspect that those who were executed were bucking their own peer group's solidarity. I honestly believe that Kim is just a figurehead who can be overruled by his generals. His girlfriend machine gunned. Was that really his idea? His brother killed? Was that really his idea, or his military's? Was Kim consolidating his power with that, or was that a lesson to Kim that even being the son of Kim Jong Il was not protective enough?

CPT George Langley - The current suspension of training exercises hardly constitutes and end to the training of conventional forces. Major exercises are nothing more than reality checks of the command and control efforts of major HQ's. Even in my day the same effects could be largely realized by setting up major HQ's in a neat row of GP tents all on networked servers fighting digitized opponents and a few OPFOR computer geeks, while company commanders and above "phoned it in." While the platoon leaders and below go about the business of refining their locating, closing with and destroying skills, without the Dog and Pony show of a major exercise.

I never participated in a single major command field exercise, single service or joint, where the troops in the trenches were getting the majority of the training value out of the exercise. It was quite frankly for them very little bang for very big bucks. For those actually responsible for locating, closing with, and destroying the enemy 99% of the effective training is delivered by team leaders, squad leaders, and occasionally platoon leaders every week.

As far as the DKRP, Chairman Kim and his Generals, oligarchies almost never act rationally. They demand more and more from the populace, while delivering less and less. Always convinced that they, the elite, are unassailable. Then one day, the collective cognizance of a significant desperate few changes. That awareness sweeps through the populace like wildfire. Then the defiled bodies of the oligarchs, in some way or another, are displayed in the public square.

As far as the DKRP's maintenance of an over-sized military, and a belligerant posture... For a moment, put yourself in the shoes of an oppressive, tin pan dictator; adjacent/near to and largely dependent upon a global adversary of the US (In this case, China). Then look at the history of global powers since WWII. What nation has embarked on more direct military interventions to change oppressive regimes than the US? (Don't get me wrong, I'm in favor of most of those regime changes. I just think we could use more finesse and less brute force.) What nation has embarked on more covert, indirectly sponsored internal coups and overthrows than the US? (We have a habit of picking dictators as bad as the ones we removed.) Those dictatorships must choose between nearby their US hostile superpower neighbor/sponsor with leadership that last for decades; or the US an ocean away, with leadership chosen by a populace that at heart, doesn't want to commit to a death match to support ANY of our allies, once push comes to shove.

Unfortunately, much of mankind is comfortable with MOSTLY benevolent dictatorship. A more "caring, concerned, and compassionate" oligarchy takes over. Sweeping reforms are made; and in a few years, or a few decades, or a few generations... the populace once gain find itself under the heel of an oppressor. What government has EVER had less regulation and control than it had one decade prior?

I vote that up. All of it.