North Korea fires multiple ballistic missiles, first launch in months

SEOUL, South Korea: North Korea fired multiple ballistic missiles on Wednesday, its first such launch in months just a week before world leaders, including US President Donald Trump, descend on South Korea for a summit.

Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said it had “detected several projectiles, believed to be short-range ballistic missiles”.

The missiles were fired around 8:10 am Wednesday (2310 GMT Tuesday) from an area south of the capital Pyongyang, Seoul’s military said.

They flew for around 350 kilometres (217 miles), Seoul added.

The launch was the first of its kind since South Korean President Lee Jae-myung took office in June.

Trump has said he hopes to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, possibly this year, following several meetings during the Republican president’s first term.

The North’s state media has indicated that Kim is open to future talks, with caveats that the United States give up its “delusional” demand that Pyongyang relinquish its nuclear arsenal.

North Korea this month showed off what it called its “most powerful” intercontinental ballistic missile at a military parade attended by top officials from Russia and China.

Pyongyang has said that the strike range of the new Hwasong-20 “knows no bounds”.

In September, Kim oversaw a test of a solid-fuel engine used for long-range nuclear missiles.

State media said it was the ninth and final test of the engine, indicating that a full test-fire of the new ICBM could be conducted in the coming months.

The launch was “a response to Trump and his recent moves,” Park Won-gon, a professor at Seoul’s Ewha Womans University, said.

Kim Jong Un is also “asserting his regime’s presence during an event hosted by Seoul, as he’s done before,” he added.

Trump is expected to arrive in South Korea on October 29 for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Forum.

North Korea has for years staged test flights of long-range missiles it claims are able to reach the continental United States.

The US demand that Kim give up his banned weapons has long been a sticking point between the two countries.

But Pyongyang has recently indicated a fresh openness to talks with the United States.

Kim met Trump three times for high-profile summits during the US leader’s first term, before talks collapsed in Hanoi in 2019 over what concessions Pyongyang was prepared to make on its atomic weapons.

In September, Kim said he had “fond memories” of those talks with Trump and was open to another meeting.

“If the United States discards its delusional obsession with denuclearisation and, based on recognising reality, truly wishes for peaceful coexistence with us, then there is no reason we cannot meet it,” state media quoted him as saying.