North Korea launches missiles, Seoul says, after Trump floats Kim meet

North Korea fired several short-range ballistic missiles on Thursday, the South said, and Pyongyang mocked US “servant” Seoul, after President Donald Trump suggested he would meet Kim Jong Un this year.

The latest launches from the nuclear-armed North come as South Korea and the United States hold a shorter edition of their annual Ulchi Freedom Shield military exercises, following an order from Trump to scale them back.

Pyongyang has long condemned US-South Korea joint exercises as rehearsals for invasion, often staging missile launches around the drills.

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 plans to meet the North Korean leader later this year.

The US president also said it was important to “get along” with Kim, adding that Pyongyang now had 57 “very powerful” nuclear weapons. Seoul says there are around 80-120.

Hours after Trump’s remarks, North Korea fired more than 10 short-range ballistic missiles from the Pyongyang area towards the East Sea at around 5:00 pm (0800 GMT), South Korea’s military said.

The missiles flew around 300 kilometres (186 miles), the Joint Chiefs of Staff said, adding that South Korean and US authorities were conducting a detailed analysis of their specifications.

South Korea’s presidential office convened an emergency security meeting, condemning the launches as a violation of UN Security Council resolutions and ordering heightened readiness.

Trump’s 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.

Hours after the launches, Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of the North Korean leader, said Trump’s decision to scale back the drills with South Korea was Seoul’s comeuppance.

She called it in a statement “an evident disaster brought by the unrealistic and anachronistic security outlook” pursued by Seoul, arguing the South had a “master-and-servant” relationsihp with the United States.

 ‘Blinded by faith’

Kim accused South Korean officials of making “unnecessary attempts to reverse the regional mechanical structure… blinded by their firm belief in the US master”.

South Korea “has reaped what it sowed”, she said.

South Korea’s dovish President Lee Jae Myung — who has long pushed for stronger homegrown defences to reduce Seoul’s military reliance on the United States — said on Wednesday he would “do his utmost” to support Trump’s peacemaking efforts with the North.

Kim Yo Jong on Thursday ridiculed Lee’s remarks as “double-dealing”, courting favour with Washington while claiming “independent national defence”.

On Wednesday, she said Kim Jong Un had “good memories and feelings” about Trump and that the relationship between the two leaders remains “excellent”.

She said, however, that she was unaware of any current communication between the two leaders.

Her Wednesday statement came hours after Seoul announced the Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises would end on Friday — about a week earlier than planned — “at the suggestion of the US side”.

The exercises are designed to prepare for a possible attack by North Korea.

The United States stations about 28,500 troops in South Korea to bolster the country’s defences, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War that ended with an armistice rather than a peace treaty.

South Korea’s Defence Minister Ahn Gyu-back said Seoul remained opposed to officially recognising the North as a nuclear-weapon state.

Asked whether Washington had “given up” on North Korea’s denuclearisation, Ahn said he did not believe so.

But on Thursday, Kim Yo Jong argued that US military support is “no longer free of charge”.

“Seoul should be aware of the unavoidable fate of the ‘puppet'”.