South Korea: Seoul detects North Korean missile launches hours after Trump's announcement of a meeting with Kim

North Korea launched several short-range ballistic missiles on Thursday, according to the South Korean military, hours after President Donald Trump said he would meet with Kim Jong Un later this year.

Trump said Wednesday at the White House that he plans to meet with Kim Jong Un later this year, seeking to resume the relationship he claims to have forged with the North Korean dictator during his first term. He added that it is important to "get along" with Kim and that Pyongyang now possesses 57 "very powerful" nuclear weapons.

Missiles during joint exercises

An officer from South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff told AFP that North Korea had launched "about 10 short-range ballistic missiles" from the Pyongyang area. Japan had previously reported, via X , that a suspected "ballistic missile launched by North Korea a few moments ago had already fallen."

North Korea fired the missiles while Seoul and Washington were conducting a shorter version of their annual Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises, scaled back by Trump's decision. Pyongyang typically denounces these exercises as invasion drills and often responds with missile launches.

The exercises serve to prepare for a possible North Korean offensive. The United States maintains some 28,500 troops in South Korea, a legacy of the 1950–1953 war, which ended in an armistice rather than a peace treaty.

South Korea does not recognize Pyongyang as a nuclear power

Seoul announced on Wednesday that the Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises will end on Friday, about seven days earlier than planned, "at the suggestion of the U.S. side." The Pentagon, for its part, stated that this reduction will not affect training objectives.

Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-back reiterated that Seoul opposes officially recognizing the North as a nuclear state. When asked if Washington had "given up" on denuclearization, he said he did not believe so.

President Lee Jae-myung, a proponent of strengthening South Korea's own defense capabilities to reduce dependence on the United States, stated on Wednesday that he will do "everything possible" to support Trump's peace efforts with North Korea.