North Korea launches ballistic missiles ahead of Trump visit to Asia

North Korea fired what appeared to be multiple short-range ballistic missiles on Wednesday, South Korea’s military said, a week ahead of a key meeting of Asia-Pacific leaders in South Korea.

It was the first ballistic missile launch since May by Pyongyang, which defied a United Nations Security Council ban on the weapons.

It was also the first such launch since Lee Jae Myung was elected president in South Korea, with a platform of engagement with North Korea.

Lee and US President Donald Trump are expected to meet in South Korea next week at an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum summit. Trump is also expected to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

South Korea detected several projectiles believed to be short-range ballistic missiles fired from an area near the North Korean capital Pyongyang in a northeast direction early Wednesday, its Chief of Staff said in a statement.

Trump visit to South Korea

Lee and Trump have discussed the idea of ​​trying to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un when the US president visits the South, but Pyongyang has not publicly responded to the idea.

US officials discussed, but never confirmed, a trip to the demilitarized zone (DMZ) that separates the two Koreas, according to a person familiar with the discussions.

South Korea has suspended tours of the Joint Security Area (JSA) at the inter-Korean border village of Panmunjom until early November, but has not confirmed any plans to meet with Kim.

Trump and Kim held three summits during Trump’s first term from 2017 to 2021 and exchanged a series of letters that Trump called “beautiful” before the unprecedented diplomatic effort collapsed amid US demands that Kim give up his nuclear weapons.

Reading: North Korea is holding a military parade

In September, Kim expressed “beautiful memories” of Trump, saying there was no reason to avoid talks with the US if Washington stopped insisting his country give up nuclear weapons, but would never give up its nuclear arsenal to end sanctions.

“It’s not at all inconceivable that Donald Trump could be here in Washington, say, ‘Denuclearization, that’s our goal, that’s our policy,’ and then go to Panmunjom and say, ‘Oh, you know, Kim Jong Un is a nuclear power,'” said Victor Cha, a fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “Even if it’s a short meeting, in the larger scheme of things, with everything the United States is dealing with these days, it wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing.”

Andrew Yeo, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, said that while a Trump-Kim meeting was not impossible, the US president’s known schedule and schedule may make it unlikely.

“Trump is only there for one night, two days, and because of the Xi-Trump meeting, that’s probably taking up all the bandwidth or resources of the US government,” he said.

Multiple rockets were fired

Nuclear-armed North Korea has steadily upgraded its missile capabilities over the past decade in defiance of multiple United Nations sanctions, having test-fired long-range ballistic missiles with the potential range to hit the US mainland if launched on a trajectory calibrated to do so.

Read more: Trump wants to meet North Korea’s Kim

South Korea’s military said it detected movements before the launch, then tracked the missiles after they were launched and flew about 350 kilometers (217 miles), the military said.

The missiles appear to have landed inland, a military official said separately.

New Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said there was no impact on Japan’s security from North Korea’s missile launch and Tokyo was sharing real-time information with the US

North Korea last fired ballistic missiles on May 8, when it fired multiple short-range missiles from its east coast.

North Korea unveiled its latest intercontinental ballistic missile this month in a parade attended by the Chinese premier.