North Korea Fires Missiles After US-Korea-Japan Drills — SkimNews
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- North Korea fired several short-range ballistic missiles from the Wonsan area on Saturday, traveling roughly 250 kilometers before landing in its eastern waters — its first missile test in about three weeks.
- The launches appeared to involve Hwasong-11 series ballistic missiles alongside 600-millimeter multiple rocket launcher rounds fired in succession, per Yonhap sources.
- The tests came a day after the US, South Korea and Japan concluded their five-day "Freedom Edge" trilateral drills spanning air, sea and cyber domains, which North Korean Defense Minister Kim Song Gi had denounced as "provocative" while threatening "strong and reflective countermeasures."
- Kim Yo Jong last month dismissed Trump's scaling back of the annual Ulchi Freedom Shield drill, saying a shortened exercise would not change its "provocative, aggressive nature" — undercutting the president's outreach.
- At a Sunday ceremony commissioning North Korea's second naval destroyer, Kim Jong Un called for expanding the country's nuclear deterrent; both destroyers are reportedly capable of carrying nuclear-capable missiles.
- AP experts note Kim, bolstered by an advancing weapons program and ties with Moscow and Beijing, may be positioning to extract greater concessions in potential Washington talks, having conditioned negotiations on the US dropping its "hostile policy" and recognizing North Korea as a nuclear state.
Why it matters: Trump's diplomatic gesture — scaling back the Ulchi Freedom Shield drill to court Kim Jong Un — has produced no restraint: Pyongyang fired missiles anyway and Kim Yo Jong publicly rejected the olive branch. With two nuclear-capable destroyers now in service and Kim publicly demanding recognition as a nuclear state, any future US negotiations start from a harder position than when Trump made his overture.
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