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North Korea fired off multiple “unidentified projectiles,” South Korean military officials said early Wednesday morning local time, a few days after President Trump said short-range missile tests didn’t seem like a big deal.
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The barrage comes just a week after North Korea’s last short-range missile test, which was the first by the Hermit Kingdom in two months.
Trump said Friday he didn’t mind North Korea testing short-range missiles, asserting that “short-range” was the key phrase and that they were just “standard” weapons that plenty of other countries have.
But the repeated test-firings have alarmed neighboring nations and threaten to undermine Trump’s attempts to reach a deal with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un over the country’s nuclear program.
American troops are scheduled to begin a military exercise alongside their South Korean counterparts in August, despite North Korean warnings that the drill could undermine future talks or even prompt the North to go back to testing nuclear weapons and long-range missiles.
The projectiles were launched from the isolated country’s east coast, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency quoted military officials as saying. One U.S. official familiar with the situation told CNN that two projectiles were launched, and another said the launches posed no direct threat to the U.S.
Cover: People watch a TV showing a file image of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during a news program at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, July 25, 2019. North Korea fired two unidentified projectiles into the sea on Thursday, South Korea’s military said, the first launches in more than two months as North Korean and U.S. officials struggle to restart nuclear diplomacy. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
