North Korea fired multiple short-range ballistic missiles early Wednesday from an area near Pyongyang, South Korea's military said, just a week before President Donald Trump is set to arrive in the country for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. The launches mark Pyongyang's first missile test since May and come amid speculation that Trump could attempt to revive talks with Kim Jong Un during his visit.
South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff confirmed that several projectiles traveled roughly 350 kilometers (217 miles) in a northeasterly direction before landing inland. The missiles appeared to be short-range weapons, violating United Nations Security Council resolutions that prohibit North Korea from conducting ballistic missile tests. Seoul convened an emergency meeting of its national security council following the launch.
Japan's new prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, said that none of the missiles landed in Japan's territorial waters or caused damage. "There was no impact on Japan's security," Takaichi said, noting that Tokyo was sharing real-time information with the U.S.
The launch is the first since South Korean President Lee Jae-myung took office in June, pledging to pursue a policy of engagement with Pyongyang. Lee has proposed reopening dialogue channels and recently told the United Nations General Assembly that he hopes to usher in "a new era of peaceful coexistence" on the Korean Peninsula.
Trump is expected to meet with both Lee and Chinese President Xi Jinping next week during the APEC summit in Seoul. U.S. and South Korean officials have privately discussed the possibility of Trump holding a brief encounter with Kim Jong Un, though Pyongyang has made no public response.
Victor Cha, a North Korea expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said such a meeting would not be out of character for Trump. "It is not at all inconceivable that Donald Trump could here in Washington, DC, say, 'Denuclearisation, that's our goal, that's our policy,' and then go up to Panmunjom and say, 'Oh, you know, Kim Jong Un is a nuclear power,'" Cha said. "Even if it's a short meeting, in the broader scheme of things, with all that the United States has to deal with these days, it wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing."
Andrew Yeo, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, said timing may make a Trump-Kim meeting difficult. "Trump's 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 U.S. government," Yeo said.
