North Korea fires missiles after dismissing Trump overtures
Published in News & Features
North Korea fired a barrage of short-range ballistic missiles on Thursday, a day after it dismissed U.S. President Donald Trump’s overtures to revive dialogue.
North Korea launched about 10 ballistic missiles from Pyongyang, Yonhap News reported, citing South Korea’s military. Japan’s coast guard earlier said a suspected North Korean missile appeared to have fallen outside Japan’s exclusive economic zone, according to the nation’s public broadcaster NHK.
South Korea’s Defense Ministry did not immediately respond to a Bloomberg News request for comment.
The launches come shortly after Pyongyang cast doubt on Trump’s suggestion that high-level communication between the two countries’ leaders had been revived. It also dismissed the U.S. decision to scale back joint military drills with South Korea.
The shock move, which saw military exercises cancelled after the annual drills had got underway, was shrugged off by Pyongyang which said that despite the “excellent” relationship between Trump and its leader Kim Jong Un, America’s hostile policy towards the North remained unchanged.
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung nevertheless welcomed Trump’s move as a potential opening for renewed diplomacy.
“The latest message from President Trump strikes me as a major decision reflecting deep consideration of how to move beyond hostility and confrontation and build peace on the Korean Peninsula,” Lee said in a late-night X post on Wednesday.
The launches also come just hours after South Korea’s defense minister said North Korea may possess as many as 120 nuclear weapons, more than twice the 57 warheads cited by Trump.
“The numbers appear to be somewhat different,” Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-back told lawmakers when asked about Trump’s assessment that Kim has “57 very powerful nuclear weapons.”
“We usually look at around 80 to 120,” Ahn said, referring to South Korea’s estimates.
Ahn later clarified that he was citing an assessment by a South Korean research institute. “As for the military’s own assessment, there are considerable limitations on what I can disclose here,” he said.
The latest weapons test marks North Korea’s third missile launch this month, underscoring the scale of the challenge confronting Trump as he tries to resurrect the personal diplomacy with Kim that defined his first term as president.
“I know Kim Jong Un very well, and he’s going to be fine. As long as we have a smart president, he’s going to be fine,” Trump said.
Despite Trump’s confidence, Kim’s expanding arsenal complicates U.S. effort to revive diplomacy. Trump and Kim met three times during the U.S. leader’s first term, but the talks failed to curb North Korea’s nuclear ambitions.
Kim has since emerged as a key ally of Russia in President Vladimir Putin’s war against Ukraine, leaving him with few incentives to immediately engage with the U.S. over his prized nuclear program.
South Korea’s Lee said in January that North Korea was producing nuclear material at a pace that could allow it to add up to 20 nuclear weapons a year.
If sustained, the pace would eventually put North Korea’s stockpile on par with France’s in size, if not sophistication, and well above Israel’s roughly 90 warheads, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute estimates.
North Korea is believed to have about 60 nuclear warheads and enough fissile material to produce at least 30 more, according to SIPRI’s report.
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