North Korea Fires Barrage Of Missiles As Kim Plays Hard To Get, After Trump Overture

The South Korean government has observed an alarming new launch of a missile barrage by North Korea on Thursday, announcing that an unidentified projectile was fired off the peninsula’s east coast on Thursday.

“The Joint Chiefs of Staff said the launches of about 10 short-range ballistic missiles happened from North Korea’s capital region around 5 p.m. (0800 GMT) on Thursday,” the Associated Press details. “The military said the missiles flew about 300 kilometers (185 miles) each toward North Korea’s eastern waters.”

“The military said South Korea has bolstered its surveillance posture and was closely coordinating information on the launches with the U.S. and Japan,” AP adds based on the statement. “South Korea’s presidential national security council issued a statement urging North Korea to halt ballistic missile launches.”

The new test is obviously meant to send a strong message, given it follows Pyongyang’s dismissal of President Trump’s decision to scale back US military exercises with South Korea this week.

Without doubt, Kim Jong-Un is welcoming the sudden attention from Trump, but if there’s hope of rekindling the ‘bromance’ - this is basically Kim playing hard to get.

North Korea’s stance is that simply scaling back the exercises doesn’t make them any less provocative and less of a threat to its national security.

The North Korean strongman’s influential sister has weighed in: “We think it’s not worth making comments on that and we have no interest in it at all,” she said, as cited in state media. “The provocative, aggressive nature of the drills won’t change even though their duration and size were reduced,” she added.

President Trump has been questioned by reporters on if there is currently an exchange of letters or any level of dialogue between Pyongyang and Washington. 

Kim Yo Jong as part of her statement denied that there’s any communication: “If the U.S. calculates that it can propagate its recent measure as the one of so-called good faith, they will not get the desired answer,” she also said.

However, there was this key caveat and positive remark in passing:

Kim Yo Jong’s statement did not contain North Korea’s typically harsh rhetoric. She briefly said relations between her brother and Trump are “still excellent,” mentioning her brother’s past comments that he still has “good memories” of Trump.

So there it is… Kim is playing hard to get while recalling all the fond memories. 

As for the White House, it probably needs a new distraction on the foreign policy front, given how much the Iran war has turned against Washington’s favor. If another face-to-face Trump-Kim meeting actually materialized down the line, it would certainly take over the headlines, at least temporarily.

Q: You said North Korea has 57 nuclear weapons, is your goal denuclearization?

Trump: I don’t want to talk about that but I have a good relationship with Kim Jong Un. I like him. I didn’t like doing these exercises against North Korea pic.twitter.com/9q74leMwpZ

— Headquarters (@HQNewsNow) August 19, 2026

On Kim, Trump said this week: “The fact that I get along with him, that’s a good thing.” He explained: “You can’t let Iran have a nuclear weapon. And I know Kim Jong Un very well, and he’s going to be fine as long as we have a smart president.“

Suddenly everyone gains immediate respect when they achieve nukes – even the ‘rogue’ actors – which is something Tehran has no doubt long observed.