U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis said Wednesday that "no decisions" have been made about suspending additional military exercises with South Korea, one day after he suggested the moratorium on large drills had ended.

After the historic summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in June in Singapore, U.S. President Donald Trump said he would suspend major exercises with South Korea, including the large-scale Ulchi Freedom Guardian exercises slated for August.

Mattis said in a statement on Wednesday that the U.S. military posture has not changed since the conclusion of the Singapore summit and no decisions have been made about suspending any future exercises.

The defense chief said that his department suspended three individual military exercises in order to provide space for U.S. diplomats to negotiate the verifiable, irreversible and complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. 

He added that U.S. and South Korean forces maintain a high state of military readiness and vigilance in full support of a diplomatically-led effort to bring peace, prosperity and stability to the Korean Peninsula.

[Photo : YONHAP News]