The scaling back of South Korea-U.S. joint military drills, following U.S. President Donald Trump’s social media post calling for a reduction, has increased uncertainty in Seoul’s push for an earlier transfer of wartime operational control (OPCON) from Washington, as the reduction will likely limit the opportunity to evaluate Seoul’s readiness to lead the combined forces. The Lee Jae Myung administration has sought to advance verification of the Combined Forces Command’s Full Operational Capability (FOC) under South Korean leadership during the ongoing Ulchi Freedom Shield (UFS) exercise and use the results to discuss a target year for the OPCON transfer at the next Security Consultative Meeting (SCM) in October. But the reduced training is expected to complicate that plan, including the government’s efforts to pursue OPCON transfer around 2028. The allies on Wednesday announced that this year's UFS would end on Friday, six days earlier than its initial original Aug. 28 end date, while scaling back or adjusting some field training exercises. The move came after Trump called fo