{"id":126356,"date":"2026-08-20T11:29:06","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T11:29:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/126356\/"},"modified":"2026-08-20T11:29:06","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T11:29:06","slug":"north-korea-launches-10-ballistic-missiles-as-us-and-south-korea-continue-joint-military-drills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/126356\/","title":{"rendered":"North Korea launches 10 ballistic missiles as US and South Korea continue joint military drills"},"content":{"rendered":"

North Korea<\/a> fired 10 ballistic missiles toward the East Sea on Thursday evening, according to South Korea\u2019s Joint Chiefs of Staff. The missiles were reportedly<\/a> launched shortly after 5 p.m. local time, and originated<\/a> from the \u201cPyongyang area.\u201d The launches come amid a rise in tensions between North and South Korea<\/a> as the latter conducts its annual Ulchi Freedom Shield joint military drills with the United States.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The launches also come after two recent developments pertaining to geopolitical relations between the United States and North Korea. First, President Donald Trump announced earlier this week that the U.S. was cutting back the annual joint military exercise between the U.S. and South Korea. The Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise typically runs for 10 days each year. However, Trump decided to shorten it to five days. The drills began on Monday and are now scheduled to conclude on Friday, August 21.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBased on direction from the President and Secretary of War, the Department has substantially reduced Exercise Ulchi Freedom Shield while continuing training that enhances tactical capability,\u201d said<\/a> a Pentagon official about the training exercise reduction.<\/p>\n

\u201cAssociated live-training events have been reduced, with certain events canceled or converted to simulations. These adjustments preserve essential readiness and training objectives,\u201d said the official. \u201cThere will be no degradation to U.S. training objectives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Truth cited the cost of the military exercises and the fact that South Korea wouldn\u2019t help the U.S. with military operations in Iran.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI am not happy with the fact that the United States has, long ago, agreed to participate in Joint Military Exercises with South Korea,\u201d Trump posted<\/a> to his Truth Social account on Sunday. \u201cThese exercises are not only costly, with much of these costs paid for by the United States of America (as usual!), but send a signal that is totally inappropriate and hostile, to a Country that, as long as Donald J. Trump has been President, has been unthreatening and respectful.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile somewhat unrelated (?), I recently asked the President of South Korea if they would like to join us in the Denuclearization of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and they said, \u201cNo thanks!\u201d Trump added.<\/p>\n

SOUTH KOREA SAYS OFFICIALS \u2018WERE NOT NOTIFIED IN ADVANCE\u2019 OF TRUMP\u2019S SCALING BACK OF JOINT EXERCISES<\/a><\/p>\n

North Korea\u2019s missile launches also came less than a day after Trump announced he would meet with Kim Jong Un, the country\u2019s supreme leader, later in 2026. The missile launches were also detected by Japan\u2019s prime minister and Coast Guard, according to reports<\/a>. South Korea reportedly \u201cbolstered its surveillance,\u201d and the country\u2019s national security council convened<\/a> an emergency meeting regarding the launches.<\/p>\n

Ballistic missile launches are prohibited under U.N. Security Council resolutions. After South Korea\u2019s JCS confirmed the country\u2019s missile launches, its national security council issued<\/a> a statement condemning the launches and urging North Korea to stop them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"North Korea fired 10 ballistic missiles toward the East Sea on Thursday evening, according to South Korea\u2019s Joint…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":126357,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[519,3858,74,890,141,31,4177,34,2642,33],"class_list":["post-126356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-north-korea","tag-asia","tag-ballistic-missiles","tag-donald-trump","tag-japan","tag-kim-jong-un","tag-korea","tag-missiles","tag-north-korea","tag-president-donald-trump","tag-south-korea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126356","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=126356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126356\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}