North Korea has conducted three missile launches in eight days but Donald Trump says ‘no problem’
- Pyongyang is furious over joint US-South Korean military exercises due to start next week
- Progress towards actual denuclearisation has been slow, with Pyongyang yet to agree to give up any of its weapons
North Korea carried out its third weapons test in eight days on Friday, according to the South’s military, but US President Donald Trump said he had “no problem” with the spate of launches by Pyongyang.
The nuclear-armed North is barred from ballistic missile tests under UN resolutions and its actions have drawn condemnation from European members of the Security Council but a comparatively sanguine response from Trump, who has met North Korean leader Kim Jong-un three times.
“I have no problem. We’ll see what happens but short range [missiles] are very standard,” Trump told reporters as he left the White House for a rally in Ohio.
Kim and Trump agreed to resume denuclearisation talks during their impromptu June encounter in the Demilitarised Zone that divides the peninsula, but that working-level dialogue has yet to begin.
Pyongyang is furious over joint US-South Korean military exercises due to start next week, and analysts say the launches are intended to raise the pressure on Washington. But the situation could see negotiations delayed until late this year, they said.