North Korea launches ballistic missiles as Trump prepares for his Asia tour

North Korea fired what appeared to be several short-range ballistic missiles on Wednesday, a week before a major meeting of Asia-Pacific leaders in South Korea, the South Korean military said.

It was First ballistic missile launch since May By Pyongyang, which defied the UN Security Council arms embargo.

It was also the first launch of its kind since then Lee Jae-myung was elected president In South Korea, with a platform to communicate with North Korea.

Lee and US President Donald Trump are expected to meet in South Korea next week at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit. Trump is also expected to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping.

South Korea discovered several projectiles They are believed to be short-range ballistic missiles The Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement that it was launched from an area near the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, in a northeasterly direction early Wednesday.

Trump to visit South Korea

Lee and Trump discussed the idea of ​​trying To meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un When the US President visits the South, but Pyongyang has not publicly responded to the idea.

US officials considered a trip to the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas, but never confirmed it, according to a person familiar with the discussions.

South Korea suspended tours of the joint security area in the inter-Korean border village of Panmunjom until early November, but has not confirmed any plans to hold a meeting with Kim.

Trump and Kim held three summits during Trump’s first term from 2017 to 2021 and exchanged a number of messages, which Trump described as “beautiful,” before the unprecedented diplomatic efforts collapsed due to American demands that… Kim gives up his nuclear weapons.

In September, Kim expressed “good memories” to Trump, saying there was no reason to avoid talks with the United States if Washington stopped insisting that his country give up nuclear weapons, but he would never give up the nuclear arsenal to end sanctions.

“It’s not at all unlikely that Donald Trump here in Washington, D.C., could say, ‘Denuclearization, that’s our goal, that’s our policy,’ and then go to Panmunjom and say, ‘Oh, you know, Kim Jong Un is a nuclear power,’” said Victor Cha of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“Even if it was a short meeting, in the broader scheme of things, with everything the United States has to deal with these days, it wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing.”

Andrew Yu, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, said that although a Trump-Kim meeting is not impossible, the US president’s known schedule and timing may make it unlikely.

“Trump is only there for one night or two days, and because of the Xi-Trump meeting, that will likely consume all the bandwidth or resources available to the US government,” he said.

Multiple missiles were fired

Nuclear-armed North Korea has steadily upgraded its missile capabilities over the past decade in defiance of multiple UN sanctions, test-launching long-range ballistic missiles with potential ranges to hit the US mainland if launched on a trajectory calibrated for that purpose.

The South Korean military said it monitored movements before the launch and then tracked the projectiles after they were launched and they flew a distance of approximately 217 miles.

A military official said separately that the missiles appeared to have fallen to the ground.

New Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaishi said there was no impact on Japan’s security from North Korea’s missile launch, and that Tokyo was exchanging information in real time with the United States.

The last time North Korea launched ballistic missiles was on May 8, when it launched several short-range missiles from its eastern coast.

North Korea displayed its latest intercontinental ballistic missiles this month in a parade attended by the Chinese Premier.