Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis and President Donald Trump are seen following a meeting at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., July 20, 2017.

President Donald Trump on Wednesday indicated that the U.S. will not participate in joint military exercises with South Korea, citing his "warm" relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, even as U.S. efforts to denuclearize the reclusive dictatorship have stalled.



"There is no reason at this time to be spending large amounts of money on joint U.S.-South Korea war games," Trump said in a string of tweets Wednesday.

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Trump's announcement came a day after Secretary of Defense James Mattis said that there were no plans to cancel future exercises with South Korea.

"As you know, we took this step to suspend several of the larger exercises as a good-faith measure coming out of the Singapore summit," Mattis said Tuesday at the Pentagon. It was his first press briefing in five months, a timeline that has included President Donald Trump's high-profile meetings with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"We have no plans at this time to suspend any more exercises. We will work very closely, as I said, with the secretary of State and what he needs done," he added, noting that forces on the Korean Peninsula have continued with small-scale training exercises.