North Korea Fires Two Missiles Before Trump-Xi Summit — SkimNews
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- North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles from the Wonsan area on September 20, detected at roughly 3 p.m. and 5:50 p.m. KST; the first flew about 450 km and the second more than 600 km, both presumed to be from the Hwasong-11 series.
- The September 20 launches were North Korea's second missile test in eight days, coming after a September 12 salvo that Pyongyang called a "joint firepower drill" one day after the Japan–South Korea–U.S. Freedom Edge exercise ended and that marked its first launch in 23 days.
- Kim Yo Jong warned on September 18 that North Korea must answer U.S.-led drills such as the Pacific Vanguard naval exercise near Guam with "measures at least as forceful," and said the country's nuclear buildup will not change; the day before that, she rejected renewed denuclearization calls at an IAEA conference.
- The launches land four days before Trump and Xi Jinping's September 24 summit in Washington — Xi's first U.S. capital visit in 10 years — and the opening of the UN General Assembly.
- A separate DMZ mine explosion on September 21 injured three South Korean Army officers from the 25th Division during a route-clearing operation south of the Military Demarcation line, with the reconnaissance battalion commander reportedly undergoing an ankle amputation; it was the first serious mine injury to South Korean troops south of the MDL since August 2015.
- President Lee said on September 18 that North Korea "is clearly refusing to communicate with South Korea," and the Unification Ministry's plan to support building hospitals in the North now faces renewed public skepticism as provocations and the DMZ blast stack up.
Why it matters: The launches land on Trump's doorstep four days before he hosts Xi and the UN General Assembly opens, layering a Korea crisis onto a summit agenda already loaded with trade and Taiwan tensions. For Seoul, the provocations plus a DMZ mine blast that maimed a battalion commander undercut President Lee's dovish overtures at the exact moment he conceded Pyongyang is refusing to communicate.
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