South Korea, United States push back military drills before 2018 Winter Olympics

The drills would have coincided with when the Olympics are being held

South Korean special police participate in an anti-terror drill at the Olympic Staduim. Getty Images

The United States and South Korea jointly agreed to push back military drills that would have been held at the same as the 2018 Winter Olympics on Thursday, according the presidential offices of the two nations. Per the Korea Herald, President Donald Trump and Korean president Moon Jae-in elected to push the drills back to ensure the success of the games -- and will instead focus on monitoring the region while the games go on.

Moon has repeatedly talked about the importance of dialogue between North and South Korea, something that Trump seems to be behind.

With all of the failed “experts” weighing in, does anybody really believe that talks and dialogue would be going on between North and South Korea right now if I wasn’t firm, strong and willing to commit our total “might” against the North. Fools, but talks are a good thing!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2018

Of the necessity of those talks, the Korea Herald reported that Moon said "[Seoul] will work closely with the US in the process of inter-Korean talks, and we (South Korea) firmly believe that inter-Korean talks are helpful to establishing an atmosphere of dialogue between the US and North Korea."

Much has been made about the safety of the Olympics being held in Pyeongchang, but United States officials have not seemed to have any intentions to hold out from the games, despite other countries expressing an interest in doing so. Senator Lindsey Graham this week, however, did say the United States should boycott the Winter Games if North Korean athletes are allowed to compete.  

The White House released a statement on Thursday's joint talks, saying that "the two leaders agreed to continue the campaign of maximum pressure and not repeat mistakes of the past," -- with the mistakes of the past referring to Trump's harsh criticism of prior leaders' handling of the North Korea situation.