North Korea Fires 10+ Missiles Hours After Trump Signals Fresh Kim Summit
North Korea launched more than 10 short-range ballistic missiles toward the East Sea on Thursday, just hours after President Donald Trump publicly declared his intention to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un later this year. The provocative test represents a blunt rejection of Trump’s diplomatic overtures and comes despite his recent order to scale back joint US-South Korean military drills. The launch was detected around 5:00 p.m. local time from the Pyongyang area. According to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, the missiles traveled approximately 300 kilometers before landing in the sea, with detailed specifications still under analysis by US and South Korean intelligence. This marks the 12th missile test by Pyongyang this year and comes only eight days after the previous launch.
The missile salvo directly follows a series of conciliatory gestures from Washington. On Monday, Trump posted on social media that he had ordered the Pentagon to “substantially reduce” joint military exercises with South Korea, citing what he described as his “very good relationship” with Kim Jong Un. The following day, Trump told reporters that Kim had responded to his “dialogue” offer, though he declined to share specifics. The Ulchi Freedom Shield (UFS) exercises, originally scheduled to run for 11 days, were abruptly shortened to just 5 days following Trump’s directive. The Pentagon said the reduced drills would cause “no degradation to US training objectives.” Reports indicate Trump is privately pushing aides to arrange a meeting with Kim as early as this fall, potentially during an Asia trip scheduled for November 2026 for the APEC summit in Shenzhen.
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Despite these overtures, North Korea responded with defiance. Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of Kim Jong Un and a senior Workers’ Party official, issued a statement dismissing the reduction in US-South Korean drills as “not even worth commenting on” and “completely uninteresting.” “Reducing the scale or duration of the exercises does not change their fundamentally provocative and aggressive nature,” Kim Yo Jong said. She emphasized that the joint exercises are “still underway,” calling them “an unmistakable expression of hostility toward North Korea.” As for the communication between the North Korean and American leaders mentioned by President Trump, Kim Yo Jong clearly drew the line by saying she has “absolutely no knowledge of it.” She added, however, that “relations between the two leaders remain excellent,” saying this is “well known to the world and hardly surprising.” Her statement, issued just hours before the missile launch, effectively signaled that Pyongyang would not be swayed by US diplomatic gestures alone.
Analysts view the launch as a calculated act of defiance with multiple strategic objectives. The test occurred just before the shortened UFS exercises were scheduled to conclude, suggesting frustration that the drills were still ongoing despite the reduction. North Korea has previously used similar provocations during joint US-South Korean exercises, viewing them as preparation for invasion. Trump, who held an unprecedented series of summits with Kim in 2018 and 2019, has since referred to North Korea repeatedly as a “nuclear power,” although his administration continues to call for denuclearisation. Trump told reporters on Wednesday that North Korea possesses 57 “very powerful” nuclear weapons, a specific figure he has cited for the first time regarding the North’s nuclear stockpile. South Korean estimates put the country’s nuclear arsenal at between 80 and 120 weapons. Trump’s renewed engagement with Kim has raised concerns among some US allies in Asia and sparked speculation that he may be seeking a diplomatic breakthrough as efforts to resolve the Iran conflict encounter difficulties.
South Korea’s presidential office convened an emergency national security meeting immediately following the launch, condemning the act as a grave violation of UN Security Council resolutions. The office stressed the need to maintain a “thorough readiness posture” and urged Pyongyang to halt such provocations. South Korean, US, and Japanese authorities are sharing intelligence and maintaining heightened readiness, with the South Korean military emphasizing its ability to “overwhelmingly respond to any provocation.” The United States currently maintains approximately 28,500 troops in South Korea, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War that ended with an armistice rather than a formal peace agreement. South Korean Defence Minister Ahn Gyu-back said Seoul remained opposed to officially recognising the North as a nuclear-weapon state. Asked whether Washington had “given up” on North Korea’s denuclearisation, Ahn said he did not believe so. President Lee Jae Myung, who has advocated stronger domestic defence capabilities to lessen Seoul’s dependence on Washington, said he would “do his utmost” to support Trump’s peacemaking efforts with the North.