(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Lee Eun-jung = The day after Labor Party Director Kim Yo-jong announced that North Korea was "not at all interested" in reducing joint ROK-US joint exercises, it launched a show of force by launching short-range ballistic missiles in droves.
Even in a situation where US President Donald Trump has repeatedly expressed his willingness to engage in dialogue, the military provocation is interpreted as an intention to raise the price by pressuring a 'complete cessation' of joint training.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff announced that around 5 p.m. on the 20th, it detected about 10 short-range ballistic missiles launched from the Pyongyang area toward the East Sea.
They expressed their dissatisfaction by launching a ballistic missile one day before the end of the Ulchi Freedom Shield (UFS) exercise, which will be held until the 21st due to President Trump's order to shorten the period.
Earlier, in a statement released through the Korean Central News Agency the night before, Labor Party Director Kim Yo-jong said, "I do not see any interest in the reduction of joint military exercises between South Korea and the United States as it is not worth commenting on," and claimed that the United States is still carrying out hostile military activities against North Korea.
At the same time, regardless of the excellent relationship between the leaders of the two countries, they made it clear that they would respond by saying, "The sovereign exercises being undertaken to check forces that threaten the security of our countries are very common sense."
The day after this announcement was made, North Korea launched a ballistic missile, putting the 'sovereign exercise' mentioned by Director Kim into action.
At a time when President Trump is expressing his strong will to resume dialogue between North Korea and the United States, the fact that he has undertaken a provocation that could pour cold water on the creation of conditions for dialogue is interpreted as a strong message that he will not sit down at the dialogue table without a complete halt to joint training.
Even after Deputy Director Kim's cynical stance on reducing joint military exercises on the 19th (local time), President Trump confirmed a meeting with Chairman Kim Jong-un within the year and expressed his will to quickly resume North Korea-US dialogue.
Park Won-gon, a professor at Ewha Womans University, said, "North Korea has clearly shown that it will respond if joint training continues, even if it is reduced," and added, "It is meaningful to put pressure on the training to stop and to show that if it does not stop, talks will be difficult."
Also noteworthy is the timing of the launch of the missile just 1 hour and 30 minutes after Wang Yi, a member of the Chinese Communist Party's Central Political Bureau and Foreign Minister, left the country after completing his visit to Korea.
During his visit to Korea, Director Wang announced that China would play a constructive role in Korean Peninsula issues, but North Korea launched a provocation as soon as he left.
This is interpreted as an expression of North Korea's firm determination to secure a stronger deterrent in response to its own security threats, not only toward both South Korea and the United States but also toward China.
