South Korea’s government held an emergency national security meeting Thursday after North Korea conducted another apparent round of weapons tests.
South Korea’s president, Moon Jae-in, convened the emergency session soon after his government detected North Korea’s launch of two unidentified projectiles into the East Sea, according to Yonhap News Agency.
North Korea has conducted a half-dozen weapons tests over the last three months. Kim Jong Un’s regime has said its aggressive actions are a response to the joint military drills conducted by the United States and South Korea.
President Donald Trump has publicly downplayed the tests, saying that Kim is only testing “short-range” missiles, not intercontinental or nuclear weapons. But Trump’s national security adviser, John Bolton, has expressed alarm over North Korea’s actions.
The missile tests are “troubling for everybody watching the peninsula,” Bolton told Voice of America on Wednesday. He noted that the missiles “could probably hit” all of South Korea and parts of Japan, and that would endanger American military forces deployed in the region.
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