People at a prepare station in Seoul watch a TV display on Thursday exhibiting a information broadcast with file footage of a North Korean missile take a look at. North Korea fired about 10 short-range ballistic missiles, South Korea’s navy said Thursday, hours after President Trump said he would meet Pyongyang’s chief, Kim Jong Un, later this yr.

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Jung Yeon-je/AFP via Getty Images

SEOUL — North Korea rebuffed President Trump’s obvious bid to reengage with Pyongyang diplomatically this week, issuing rhetorical salvos aimed at Trump’s last-minute orders to shorten U.S.-South Korea joint navy workouts.

To reinforce its level, the North adopted up Thursday with a barrage of about a dozen short-range ballistic missiles launched from around the capital, Pyongyang, eastward toward the sea, according to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The U.S. and South Korean militaries wrapped up their annual drills six days earlier than initially scheduled on Friday in a conciliatory gesture toward North Korea, though the North urged the step is not enough to persuade it to return to talks.

In a assertion carried by state media, North Korean chief Kim Jong Un’s sister Kim Yo Jong said Pyongyang regards the scaling back of the annual workouts as “unworthy of comment,” nor does it change, she added, the drills’ “provocative and offensive” nature.

President Trump posted on social media on Monday that he had ordered the drills shortened because he thinks they are pricey and ship a hostile message to North Korea. He later said that he had reached out to Kim for a assembly and obtained a constructive response.

A handout photograph supplied by Dong-A Ilbo of North Korean chief Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump attend a assembly on the south aspect of the demilitarized zone (DMZ) separating the South and North Korea on June 30, 2019 in Panmunjom, South Korea.

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Pyongyang “raises the price” of reengagement

Kim Yo Jong, however, dismissed what appeared to be Trump’s newest overture. Responding to Trump’s claim that he had been in contact with her brother, Kim said, “I am not aware of it at all.”

But she acknowledged that while U.S. insurance policies toward North Korea stay hostile, “the relationship between the two leaders is still excellent.”

The implication of Kim’s sister’s message is that she is “raising the price of reengagement, rather than closing the door to a summit” between Trump and her brother, says Kuyoun Chung, a political scientist at Kangwon National University.

Since Trump’s return to the White House last yr, Pyongyang has repeatedly demanded recognition of its nuclear energy standing as a situation for resuming diplomacy. Washington has so far been unwilling to do so, because it would negate its long-standing coverage of searching for the North’s denuclearization, as effectively as U.N. Security Council resolutions.

As North Korea’s nuclear packages have superior, strain on them to denuclearize has weakened. Seoul’s coverage is shifting from demanding denuclearization to searching for arms management, and calls in Washington for a related strategy have gained traction.

While Kim may see little level in assembly Trump, “it is entirely possible, in my view, that there could be a pro forma meeting, in which the two sides shake hands, sit down, have a nice chat, agree to discuss again,” and go dwelling, says Joseph Yun, who stepped down as appearing ambassador to South Korea last October.

South Korea fears being sidelined again

During the first Trump administration, South Korean mediation paved the manner for three Trump-Kim summits in 2018 and 2019. After the last summit failed to produce a deal, Kim bitterly accused Trump of taking part in him for an “idiot.”

South Korean troopers take half in an anti-terrorism drill at a lodge in Seoul on Wednesday on the sidelines of a main South Korea-U.S. joint navy train.

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That led to a landmark shift in North Korea’s overseas coverage, which has strengthened Kim’s place. In 2023, North Korea formally deserted the objective of reunifying with South Korea. Kim also signed a mutual protection pact with Russia and revived ties with China, all but ruling out any position for South Korea as mediator.

Officially, South Korea said it hoped Trump’s outreach would lead to renewed diplomatic engagement with North Korea.

But South Koreans have been shocked by this week’s occasions, which have heightened their fears of being sidelined during a Trump-Kim summit. They worry that in order to seal a deal with Kim, Trump could withdraw U.S. troops from South Korea and raise financial sanctions on the North, while leaving their nuclear arms in place.

“The United States would simply reap the diplomatic benefits of the summit,” Kuyoun Chung says, “while South Korea bears all the security consequences of the concessions to North Korea.”

This week, South Korea sought China’s assist with North Korea. Visiting Foreign Minister Wang Yi pledged that China would proceed to promote “peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula.”

But requested whether China could assist dealer a summit between the U.S. and North Korea, Wang said the two international locations should deal with that themselves, and the U.S. should drop its hostile insurance policies toward the North.

Transactional strategy dangers “eroding political trust”

Trump’s curbing of the navy drills has fueled South Korea’s unease about the future of the alliance with the U.S.

South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun instructed lawmakers on Wednesday he’d do his greatest “to make sure the South Korea-U.S. alliance does not weaken” as the U.S. pursues dialogue with Pyongyang. Cho admitted that Seoul was caught off guard by Trump’s orders.

U.S. President Donald Trump reacts as he is introduced with the Grand Order of Mugunghwa and the Silla gold crown by South Korean President Lee Jae Myung at the Gyeongju National Museum on October 29, 2025 in Gyeongju, South Korea.

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But for Trump, Seoul has fallen brief on his calls for. In the same social media publish on Monday, Trump also complained that South Korea had declined his request to be a part of the U.S. in its operations against Iran.

Cho Hyun said Wednesday that Trump’s order to shorten drills was meant in half to strain South Korea to pace up its funding of $350 billion in the U.S., in trade for decrease tariffs.

The administrations of President Trump and South Korean President Lee Jae Myung “actually share several broad objectives,” notes Yu Jihoon, a analysis fellow at the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses, a authorities think tank. They embrace restarting diplomacy with North Korea and rising South Korea’s accountability for defending itself.

Where they differ is Trump’s transactional strategy.

“If South Koreans begin to believe that security commitments or military exercises can be used as leverage over unrelated issues such as Iran, investment, trade, or broader foreign policy disagreements,” Yu says, “confidence in Washington’s reliability could weaken.”

Yu does not believe the South Korea-U.S. alliance is about to implode immediately. “The greater risk is the gradual erosion of political trust,” he says.

That erosion seems to be effectively underway. In a latest ballot by the Joongang Daily newspaper and the East Asia Institute, 45.4% of respondents see the U.S. as a reliable companion, while 46% see it as untrustworthy.

And of the 43.6% of respondents who have a adverse impression of the U.S., three-quarters attribute it to what they see as the United States’ coercive habits toward allies on points including commerce, funding and protection.