On Wednesday, North Korea launched several missiles—just hours after calling on the United States to abandon its "hostile" policy toward Pyongyang. This increased pressure on President Donald Trump amid significant Democratic gains in the midterm elections, UNN reports, citing Bloomberg.
Details
According to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, the missiles were launched from the Sondok area toward waters off North Korea’s east coast. The military has not yet provided additional details, including the exact type or number of projectiles fired.
The publication notes that the launches took place as Americans were voting in elections that many viewed as a referendum on the first two years of Trump’s second term; as a result of the vote, Democrats gained control of both chambers of the U.S. Congress. North Korea often times tests of prohibited weapons to coincide with elections in the United States and South Korea.
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The U.S. Pacific Command said it was aware of the missile launches and that they did not pose an immediate threat to U.S. personnel, territory, or allies.
According to the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), Wednesday’s launches marked the fourth weapons test in North Korea over the past week—following Monday’s launch of a strategic cruise missile equipped with a separating warhead.
This came after North Korean leader Kim Yo Jong rejected U.S. claims that Pyongyang was involved in the theft of more than $6 billion in cryptocurrency from the Binance exchange, warning of "corresponding countermeasures."
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"Our clear position is that we have no need to sit at the negotiating table with such unreliable and hostile individuals who refuse to abandon their policy of confrontation," Kim said in a statement distributed by KCNA.
The Binance hack occurred as Trump began speaking about the possibility of reestablishing contacts with North Korea, hinting at a possible meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un this year. However, last month Trump somewhat dampened those expectations, saying that he was "not sure whether anyone is asking for such a meeting at all."
"The U.S. malicious attempt to gain political and strategic advantage by speculating about this incident is causing political repercussions," Kim Yo Jong said. "Choosing peace certainly entails dialogue, but it is by no means always equivalent to our national interests." During the U.S. leader’s first term, Trump and Kim Jong Un met three times, but those contacts failed to curb North Korea’s nuclear ambitions.
On Monday, Kim Jong Un visited a shipyard in Nampo on the country’s west coast and urged officials to step up efforts to modernize naval capabilities, citing "nuclear blackmail and threats from enemies in the region."
"The rapid buildup of the combat capabilities of surface and underwater forces to protect national sovereignty at sea amid various threats is a vital requirement of the times," he said, according to a statement by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) released on Wednesday.