In a move that reorders decades of alliance calculus, President Trump directed the Pentagon to curtail joint US-South Korean military exercises, citing personal goodwill toward Kim Jong Un as a bridge toward diplomacy. The Ulchi Freedom Shield drills, a cornerstone of deterrence since the Korean War, were cut short by more than a week — a concession made in the hope that restraint might open doors that pressure never could. Yet Pyongyang has offered no reciprocal gesture, and the silence from Kim Jong Un raises the oldest question in statecraft: whether goodwill extended without condition invi