North Korea launches 10 short-range ballistic missiles

The missiles were reportedly launched from the region of Pyongyang at around 5 pm, prompting the South Korean military to tighten its surveillance (Photo: AP).

North Korea launched 10 short-range ballistic missiles towards its eastern waters on Thursday, a day after it dismissed US President Donald Trump’s efforts to resume diplomacy, when he ordered to scale back of military drills with South Korea The missiles were reportedly launched from the region of Pyongyang at around 5 pm, prompting the South Korean military to tighten its surveillance. The joint chiefs of staff said the military was closely coordinating information regarding the launches with the US and Japan. Earlier, the Japanese prime minister’s office had reported detecting a suspected missile launch. Following the launches, the national security council held an emergency meeting, then issued a statement urging North Korea to halt the launches, which are banned under UN security council resolutions, the Guardian reported.

Trump’s effort to mend relations with North Korea

On Wednesday, the South Korean and US militaries said they were scaling back their 11-day Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises by six days, and would now conclude on Friday. Seoul said the "period and scale" adjustments were made due to a "proposal of the US side". Trump had reportedly ordered the Pentagon to “substantially reduce” the exercises just before they began on Monday. Explaining his reasons for the decision, the US president cited what he said was a good relationship with North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, and South Korea’s refusal to support him over the war against Iran. Kim Yo-jong, the influential sister of the North Korean leader, dismissed Trump’s overture on Wednesday, saying it was not worthy of comment. “The provocative, aggressive nature of the drills won’t change even though their duration and size were reduced,” she said. “If the US calculates that it can propagate its recent measure as one of so-called good faith, they will not get the desired answer.” She also pointed to a series of other military drills conducted by the US and South Korea earlier this year, as well as South Korea’s push to introduce nuclear-powered submarines. However, according to AP, Kim Yo-jong refrained from the typically harsh rhetoric used by North Korea, saying that relations between her brother and Trump were “still excellent”. She also referred to Kim Jong-un’s previous comments that he still had “good memories” of Trump.