North Korea fired multiple ballistic missiles Saturday, Seoul said, a day after South Korea concluded five days of joint maritime drills with the United States and Japan that were focused on the North.
In its last test, North Korea fired a barrage of missiles into the sea on August 20, despite an overture from US President Donald Trump, who said he planned to meet this year with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Hours after the August 20 missile launches, Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of the North Korean leader, said Trump’s decision to scale back the drills with South Korea was Seoul’s punishment.
On Saturday, Seoul’s military detected “multiple short-range ballistic missiles launched from the Wonsan area toward the East Sea,” also known as Sea of Japan, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement. South Korean and US intelligence authorities “have tracked and shared relevant developments since the initial stage of the launch and also shared information regarding the … missile with Japan,” the JCS statement said. Trump’s order alarmed US allies in the region, with the president calling the drills “inappropriate and hostile” towards North Korea. But Seoul’s spy agency told lawmakers earlier this month that a summit between the US and North Korea appeared possible “at any time” as signs have emerged of dialogue between them. The US president also said it was important to “get along” with Kim, adding that Pyongyang now had 57 “very powerful” nuclear weapons.
