North Korea launched a barrage of ballistic missiles toward the sea on Thursday, South Korea's military claimed, a day after Pyongyang shrugged off a decision by the US to scale back military drills with Seoul in an apparent bid to resume diplomacy.
The military said South Korea has bolstered its surveillance posture and was closely coordinating information on the launches with the US and Japan. South Korea's presidential national security council issued a statement urging North Korea to halt ballistic missile launches. The Japanese prime minister's office had earlier said that it detected a suspected missile launch.
Trump's decision to reduce drills
This comes as South Korean and US militaries said they were scaling back their 11-day Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises, citing what he said was a good relationship with North Korea's Kim Jong Un as well as South Korea's refusal to support him over the war in Iran.
President Trump said the annual exercises, which began on Monday, are not only costly but "send a signal that is totally inappropriate and hostile" to North Korea which, he said, "has been unthreatening and respectful" during his time in the White House.
Writing on social media, Mr Trump also said: "Therefore, and based on the fact that it is too late to cancel, I have instructed Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, to substantially reduce the Joint Military Exercises!"
North Korea's reaction
But Kim Yo Jong, the influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, dismissed Mr Trump's decision. "The provocative, aggressive nature of the drills won't change even though their duration and size were reduced."
"If the US calculates that it can propagate its recent measure as the one of so-called good faith, they will not get the desired answer," she added.
The president went on to claim that he recently asked South Korea's president if they would join the US in the "denuclearisation" of Iran, "and they said, 'No thanks!'"
Details of the launches
Japan and South Korea said missiles were fired. The 11-day exercises usually involve 18,000 South Korean soldiers. The US military has said the summertime Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises reinforce "the role of the alliance as the linchpin for regional peace and security" and reaffirm "the ironclad commitment between the United States and the Republic of Korea to defend their homelands."
It is understood that North Korea has already launched short-range ballistic missiles twice this month, on 6 and 12 August.
