North Korea fired around 10 short-range ballistic missiles in an apparent signal of deterrence to the U.S.-South Korea joint military drills just days after the U.S. President Donald Trump ordered to “substantially reduce” the drills.
The 80-year-old Republican leader cited his good relations with the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and described the joint military exercises as unnecessary and “hostile” toward North Korea.
North Korea earlier criticised the war games and promised a stronger deterrent and now it appears it has fired warning shots. Kim Jong Un’s powerful sister Kim Yo-jong rejected Trump’s efforts to scale back the drills, stating, “The provocative, aggressive nature of the drills won’t change even though their duration and size were reduced.”
However, Trump has maintained that he has good relations with the North Korean leader and also announced plans to meet him later this year. North Korea hasn’t yet reacted to Trump’s meeting statement.
According to the South Korean military, the missiles were launched from the Pyongyang region at around 5 p.m. (8:00 GMT) toward North Korea’s eastern waters, adding that Seoul was coordinating the situation with the U.S. and Japan.
The Japanese prime minister’s office also said that it detected a suspicious missile launch. This comes just a few days after the South Korean prime minister invited North Korea to hold talks to officially end the 1953 Korean War.
The Korean War ended with an armistice in 1953, so technically both Koreas are still at war.
Seoul’s national security council has urged Pyongyang to stop ballistic missile launches, stating that such actions are banned under the United Nations Security Council resolutions.
