{"id":126272,"date":"2026-08-20T10:21:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T10:21:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/126272\/"},"modified":"2026-08-20T10:21:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T10:21:11","slug":"north-korea-answers-us-olive-branch-with-missile-launch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/126272\/","title":{"rendered":"North Korea answers US olive branch with missile launch"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">North Korea has fired several short-range ballistic missiles, Seoul\u2019s military said on Thursday, hours after US President Donald Trump said he would meet Pyongyang\u2019s Kim Jong-un this year.<\/p>\n<p>The latest launches from the nuclear-armed North come as South Korea and the United States <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/week-asia\/politics\/article\/3364579\/us-drill-cuts-threaten-south-koreas-wartime-command-plans?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">hold a shorter edition<\/a> of their annual Ulchi Freedom Shield military exercises, following an order from Trump to scale them back.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Pyongyang has long condemned US-South Korea joint exercises as rehearsals for invasion, often staging missile launches around the drills.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"US Army soldiers take part in a training exercise on a river in Yeoncheon, South Korea, near the border with North Korea on Thursday. Photo: AP\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/f0b4d168-c505-4c97-b570-d2d421732606_1305afb0.jpg\" title=\"US Army soldiers take part in a training exercise on a river in Yeoncheon, South Korea, near the border with North Korea on Thursday. Photo: AP\"\/>US Army soldiers take part in a training exercise on a river in Yeoncheon, South Korea, near the border with North Korea on Thursday. Photo: AP<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Trump, seeking to revive the bond he claims to have forged with Kim in his first term, told reporters at the White House on Wednesday he planned to meet the North Korean leader later this year.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The US president also said it was important to \u201cget along\u201d with Kim, adding that Pyongyang now had 57 \u201cvery powerful\u201d nuclear weapons. Seoul says there are around 80 to 120.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Hours after Trump\u2019s remarks, an official from Seoul\u2019s Joint Chiefs of Staff said that the North fired \u201caround 10 short-range ballistic missiles\u201d from the Pyongyang area.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Japan earlier said a suspected \u201cballistic missile launched by North Korea a short while ago has already fallen\u201d, according to a social media post from the prime minister\u2019s office.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Trump\u2019s sudden focus on Kim and his scaling back of joint US-South Korean military drills have alarmed Asian allies, while sparking speculation that he was seeking a foreign policy win as the Iran war stalls.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"North Korea has fired several short-range ballistic missiles, Seoul\u2019s military said on Thursday, hours after US President Donald&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":126273,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[74,114,890,141,2371,34,9582,129,33,57101,1332],"class_list":["post-126272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pyongyang","tag-donald-trump","tag-iran","tag-japan","tag-kim-jong-un","tag-kim-yo-jong","tag-north-korea","tag-pentagon","tag-pyongyang","tag-south-korea","tag-ulchi-freedom-shield","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126272\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}