Unification Minister Chung Dong-young said Wednesday he hoped scaled-back military drills between South Korea and the United States could open the door for dialogue between North Korea and Washington. He made the remarks during a parliamentary committee meeting, as Seoul and Washington announced cutting short their annual summertime military exercise to Friday, concluding the 11-day drills a week earlier than scheduled. Chung said he supported U.S. President Donald Trump's order to scale back the Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise, adding what Trump described as making things safer is "exactly the core" of the exercise reduction. "The shared goal of the alliance is peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula," Chung told a meeting of the parliamentary committee on foreign and unification affairs. In a Truth Social post on Sunday (U.S. time), Trump ordered the U.S. military to reduce the combined exercise, arguing that the drills send a "totally inappropriate and hostile" signal to North Korea. When asked to respond to the view that he was prioritizing the interests of North Korea over America'