Our top story this afternoon...
Despite the sudden end of the Hanoi summit,… South Korea and the U.S. remain commited in facilitating dialogue with North Korea for denuclearization and lasting peace.
To that effort,... the two sides announced that their joint annual military exercises will be much reduced in scale moving forward.
Our Won Jung-hwan has this report.

S. Korea-U.S. joint military exercises will be replaced with scaled-down new ones... to back diplomacy for denuclearization and long-lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula.
According to the two countries' defense authorities on Sunday,… Seoul and Washington have decided to revise their joint annual drills known as Key Resolve and Foal Eagle.
The decision was made after a 45-minute telephone conversation the day before,… between Seoul's Defense Minister, Jeong Kyeong-doo, and acting U.S. Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan.
It's a decision that reflects their will to maintain dialogue with Pyongyang, despite the breakdown in negotiations at the second North Korea-U.S. summit.

Following close coordination,… both sides decided to introduce changes to the Key Resolve and Foal Eagle exercises, which are held every springtime.
The allies are expected to replace Key Resolve's command post exercise with a renamed one,... and downsize Foal Eagle's field drills to smaller, battalion-level maneuvers.
Despite the reduction in scale,... the allies pledged to maintain a high level of combat readiness through more missions-specific training programs.

The two sides made it clear... that their decision was in support of diplomatic efforts to achieve complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
Last year,... Seoul and Washington downsized a number of major joint exercises, including Ulchi Freedom Guardian and Vigilant Ace... in the midst of warming ties with North Korea.
Won Jung-hwan, Arirang News.