North Korea fires multiple ballistic missiles – Seoul

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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.

Pyongyang last month slammed plans for the so-called Freedom Edge joint exercises in international waters off South Korea as a “threat” to North Korea and other countries of the region.

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.

The missiles were detected at around 05:20 am (2020 GMT Friday) and flew around 250 kilometres (155 miles), they added.

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.

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.

That launch from the nuclear-armed North came as South Korea and the United States held a shorter edition of their annual Ulchi Freedom Shield military exercises, following an order from Trump to scale them back.

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.

Trump met Kim three times during his first term — once declaring they were “in love” — in high-profile summits aimed at securing a denuclearisation deal, but no tangible progress was made.

– ‘An evident disaster’  –

Pyongyang has long condemned US-South Korea joint exercises as rehearsals for invasion, often staging missile launches around the drills.

Trump, seeking to revive the bond he claims to have forged with Kim in his first term, told reporters at the White House on August 19 he plans to meet the North Korean leader this year.

The US president also said it was important to “get along” with Kim, adding that Pyongyang now had 57 “very powerful” nuclear weapons.

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.

She called it in a statement “an evident disaster brought by the unrealistic and anachronistic security outlook” pursued by Seoul, arguing the South had a “master-and-servant” relationship with the United States.