“Today we had a historic meeting and decided to leave the past behind and we are about to sign the historic document,” Kim said at the signing ceremony. “The world will see a major change.”

At a news conference two hours later, a relaxed and relieved Trump pronounced the historic meeting a greater success than he expected. “I will say this, we are much further along than I would have thought,” he said. “I told people I thought that this would be a successful meeting if we got along, and developed a relationship and we maybe could have got to this point in three or four months from now.”

Trump said he has full confidence that Kim will follow through with his commitment to complete denuclearization. “It will happen. People thought this could never take place. It is now taking place. It is a very great day,” Trump said in his hour-long news conference. “We signed a very, very comprehensive document and I believe he will live up to that document. In fact, when he lands, which is shortly, I think he will start that process right away.”

THE BIG GIVEAWAY: Trump has promised to keep economic sanctions on the North until they show they are living up to the principles in the signed document, but the U.S. president made a major concession, agreeing to halt the U.S.-South Korea military exercise that the Pentagon has always insisted are vital to maintaining the readiness to defend the South from the North. “We will be stopping the war games, which will save us a tremendous amount of money. Unless and until we see the future negotiation is not going along like it should.”

Trump also conceded a major point that North Korea has used in propaganda for years, namely that the joint exercises — which the U.S insists are purely defensive — are in fact “provocative,” to which Trump also added “tremendously expensive.”

“The amount of money that we spend on that is incredible,” said Trump, who also faulted South Korea for not paying enough of the cost. “We have to talk to them. We have to talk to many countries about treating us fairly.” It’s not clear if Trump discussed the cancellation of exercise with South Korea president Moon Jae-in, despite Pentagon’s insistence that the scheduling of war games is always a joint decision.

SOUTH KOREA CONFUSED: A statement released by Moon’s office seemed to confirm the South Korean president was blindsided. “At this moment we need to figure out President Trump’s accurate meaning and intention of this comment,” said the statement from the Blue House. “However, we believe we need to seek various measures how to efficiently move forward the dialogues [as] serious talks are being conducted to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula and establish relationships between North Korea and the United States.”

THOSE EXPENSIVE BOMBER FLIGHTS: Flying U.S. bombers in routine training missions is something that happens every day, all over the world. But Trump seems to think it’s a major drain on our resources.

“We fly in bombers from Guam. I said when I first started I said where do the bombers come from? Guam. Nearby. I said ‘oh great, nearby, where is nearby?’ Six and a half hours. Six and a half hours. That’s a long time for these big massive planes to be flying to South Korea to practice and then drop bombs all over the place and then go back to Guam,” Trump said.

“I know a lot about airplanes. Very expensive. I didn’t like it. What I did say is and I think it is provocative. … So under the circumstances, we are negotiating a very comprehensive and complete deal. I think it’s inappropriate to be having war games. So number one, we save money. A lot. And number two, it really is something that I think they very much appreciated.”

QUICK REACTION: Speaking on CNN, Joseph Yun, the former U.S. special representative for North Korea policy, said he was baffled by the concession. “South Korea is a little confused. What does it mean to stop war games?” Yun said.

“This has been the standard demand, that we stop joint military exercise for decades now. We’ve never given that in, because it’s been our right and it means readiness for our troops. I mean, what’s the point of having troops there if they’re not ready? If they cannot exercise?”

FLASHBACK: Remember what former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said in January? “Let me be clear: We will not allow North Korea to drive a wedge through our resolve or our solidarity. We reject a ‘freeze-for-freeze’ approach in which legitimate defensive military exercises are placed on the same level of equivalency as the DPRK’s unlawful actions.”

Of course, Tillerson’s great weakness was that it was never clear if he was actually speaking for the president.

ENGINE TESTING SITE: Trump cited as evidence of Kim’s goodwill his agreement to destroy what Trump called a major missile engine testing site. “That’s not in your signed document,” Trump said. “We agreed to that after the agreement was signed. That’s a big thing. The missiles they were testing. The site will be destroyed very soon.”

WHAT’S NEXT: “Today is the beginning of the arduous process. Our eyes are wide open,” Trump said. The summit, he said, will be followed up by a series of meetings. “We are getting together next week to get into the details, Secretary [Mike] Pompeo. Next week with John Bolton and the entire team to go over details and get this stuff done. We want to get it done.”

Trump promised more consultations with South Korea and Japan, and to a “lesser extent,” with China. He even held out the prospect of inviting Kim to the White House, and visiting Pyongyang at the “appropriate time.”

MATTIS ON TROOP PRESENCE: Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told reporters yesterday he does not believe a reduction in U.S. troops in South Korea is part of the negotiation. Any drawdown of the roughly 28,500 troops now stationed in the South would have to first be negotiated by Seoul and Washington and no such talks are underway, Mattis said during an impromptu press conference at Pentagon

Trump said as much this morning, although he said eventually he would like to withdraw U.S. forces, which he says number 32,000. “At some point, I have to be honest. … I want to get our soldiers out. I want to bring our soldiers back home,” Trump said. “But that’s not part of the equation right now. At some point, I hope it will be.”

THE FOUR POINTS: The agreement signed by Trump and Kim has four bullet points. The U.S. and North Korea:

• Commit to a new relationship of “peace and prosperity.”
• Agree to build a “lasting and stable peace regime” on the Korean Peninsula.
• Reaffirm that North Korea commits to working toward “complete denuclearization.”
• Commit to recovering POW/MIA remains.

Good Tuesday morning and welcome to Jamie McIntyre’s Daily on Defense, compiled by Washington Examiner National Security Senior Writer Jamie McIntyre (@jamiejmcintyre), National Security Writer Travis J. Tritten (@travis_tritten) and Senior Editor David Brown (@dave_brown24). Email us here for tips, suggestions, calendar items and anything else. If a friend sent this to you and you’d like to sign up, click here. If signing up doesn’t work, shoot us an email and we’ll add you to our list. And be sure to follow us on Twitter @dailyondefense.