North Korea Touts Missile Tests as Trump Visits South Korea
North Korea said Wednesday that it has conducted successful cruise missile tests, the latest display of its growing military capabilities and one that comes while US President Donald Trump visits South Korea.
Trump has repeatedly expressed a desire to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during his trip but acknowledged difficulties in arranging a meeting with Kim.
“I know Kim Jong Un very well. We get along very well,” Trump said at the beginning of his meeting with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung in the South Korean city of Gyeongju. “We really weren’t able to work out timing.”
Speaking with reporters earlier aboard Air Force One en route from Japan to South Korea, Trump appeared to downplay the significance of the latest North Korean missile test activities.
“He’s been launching missiles for decades, right?” Trump said.
North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency said its sea-to-surface missiles fired Tuesday flew for more than two hours before accurately striking targets in its western waters. It said the weapons would contribute to expanding the operational sphere of the country’s nuclear-armed military.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said that South Korea and the United States were analyzing the weapons and maintaining a combined defense readiness capable of a “dominant response” against any North Korean provocation.
North Korea’s latest launches followed short-range ballistic missile tests last week that it said involved a new hypersonic system designed to strengthen its nuclear war deterrent. They were North Korea’s first ballistic missile tests in five months.
