North Korea on Thursday launched about 10 short-range ballistic missiles towards the sea, a day after it rejected a US decision to scale back joint military drills with South Korea in what appeared to be an effort to restart diplomacy.

South Korea’s military said the missiles were fired from North Korea’s capital region at around 5 pm and flew about 300 kilometres each towards the country’s eastern waters. Seoul said it had strengthened its surveillance posture and was closely sharing information on the launches with the US and Japan, while South Korea’s presidential national security council urged the North to stop ballistic missile launches. Japan’s prime minister’s office had earlier said it had detected a suspected missile launch.

The launches came after US President Donald Trump ordered the Pentagon to ‘substantially reduce’ the Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises shortly before they began on Monday. Trump cited what he described as a good relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korea’s refusal to support him over the war in Iran.

On Wednesday, the South Korean and US militaries confirmed that they had cut the 11-day drills by about half and cancelled some field training exercises. The reduction raised concerns about the allies’ joint defence posture.

Later on Wednesday, Kim Yo Jong, the influential sister of Kim Jong Un, dismissed Trump’s move, saying, ‘the provocative, aggressive nature of the drills won’t change even though their duration and size were reduced.’ She added, ‘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 also denied Trump’s claim that Kim Jong Un had responded to his request for a conversation.

Kim Yo Jong, however, avoided the kind of fiery rhetoric often used by North Korea and said personal relations between her brother and Trump were ‘still excellent’. On Wednesday, when reporters asked Trump if he would meet Kim Jong Un this year, he replied, ‘Yeah, I will be.’ He did not answer a question on whether he was exchanging letters with Kim, but said he gets along with him.

Ulchi Freedom Shield is one of the main annual military exercises held by the US and South Korea to improve their ability to deal with possible North Korean aggression. Washington and Seoul say the drills are defensive, but North Korea calls them a rehearsal for invasion and often responds with weapons tests. Before this month’s drills began, North Korea accused the US and South Korea of planning more provocative exercises this summer and said it would respond with ‘a new level of a deterrent’. Days before the drills started, North Korea fired two ballistic missiles into the sea in its first such launches since late June.

Trump’s earlier diplomacy with Kim Jong Un collapsed in 2019 over differences on how much sanctions relief North Korea should receive in return for dismantling its main nuclear complex, a limited step towards denuclearisation. Since then, Kim has avoided talks with the US, pushed to modernise his weapons arsenal and expanded cooperation with Russia. He has also said he will not put his nuclear programme back on the negotiating table. Experts say Kim has more leverage than he did when he first met Trump in 2018 and 2019, and may be seeking international recognition as a nuclear state and broad sanctions relief in exchange for only limited denuclearisation steps.

In sum, North Korea’s latest missile launches came even after the US and South Korea reduced their joint drills, underlining that Pyongyang remains unwilling to return to talks without bigger concessions from Washington.

With PTI Inputs

– Ends

Published By:

India Today Web Desk

Published On:

Aug 20, 2026 17:52 IST