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Missiles after drill cut
North Korea fired about 10 short-range ballistic missiles toward the sea from the region of Pyongyang at around 5pm on Thursday, South Korea’s military said, a day after Pyongyang shrugged off Donald Trump’s order to scale back US military drills with South Korea.
“the launches of about 10 short-range ballistic missiles happened from North Korea’s capital region around 5 p.m.”
The Joint Chiefs of Staff said the missiles flew about 300km each toward North Korea’s eastern waters, and South Korea’s presidential national security council held an emergency meeting after the launches.
South Korea’s military said it bolstered its surveillance posture and was closely coordinating information on the launches with the US and Japan, while the Japanese prime minister’s office said it had detected a suspected missile launch.
On Wednesday, the South Korean and US militaries said they were scaling back their 11-day Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises after Trump ordered the Pentagon to “substantially reduce” the exercises just before they began on Monday.
Kim Yo-jong dismisses
Kim Yo-jong, the influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, dismissed Trump’s overture later on Wednesday, saying it was “not worthy of comment” and that “the provocative, aggressive nature of the drills won’t change even though their duration and size were reduced.”
The Associated Press reported that Kim Yo Jong denied Trump’s claim that Kim Jong Un had responded to his request for a conversation, while also saying personal relations between her brother and Trump are “still excellent.”
South Korea’s national security council issued a statement urging North Korea to halt ballistic missile launches that are banned under UN security council resolutions, after it met in an emergency session.
Trump told reporters he expected to meet Kim Jong Un later this year, saying “Yeah, I will be,” while the Japanese prime minister’s office had earlier detected a suspected missile launch.
Diplomacy stakes rise
The missile launches came as South Korea and the US confirmed they shortened the 11-day drills by shortening their duration by about half and canceling some field training exercises, a reduction that the Associated Press said raised worries about the allies’ joint defense posture.
“The reduction of the exercises raised worries about the allies’ joint defense posture.”
The Associated Press also said the reduction of the exercises followed Trump’s earlier order to “substantially reduce” the Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises just before they began on Monday, with Trump citing what he said was a good relationship with Kim and South Korea’s refusal to support him over the war in Iran.
In parallel, the Guardian reported that Kim Yo-jong refrained from typical fiery rhetoric and said personal relations between her brother and Trump were “still excellent,” which the Guardian said could signal Pyongyang’s desire to wait for Trump to make bigger concessions before returning to talks.
The Associated Press framed the diplomatic stakes around the history of talks, saying Trump’s earlier diplomacy with Kim Jong Un collapsed in 2019 due to disputes over how much sanctions relief North Korea should be given in return for dismantling its main nuclear complex.
