New Delhi, Aug. 18 -- The 11-day Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises were already underway on Monday when Donald Trump announced he had told the Pentagon to cut them.

the exercises were to be "substantially reduced," effective immediately, because of the president's relationship with North Korea's Kim Jong Un.

South Korea's Ministry of Defence responded with a sentence that, read carefully, does not say what Trump said. The exercises, it announced, would "proceed as previously notified and scheduled." Whether that means all 18,000 soldiers running the full simulated command sequence, or a reduced exercise restructured to comply with a directive no one has publicly defined, remains the question Seoul is not answering.

Trump's stated rational...