As Trump courts Kim, Pyongyang ups price while Seoul fears being sidelined

Analysis As Trump courts Kim, Pyongyang ups price while Seoul fears being sidelined August 21, 20265:00 AM ET Anthony Kuhn People watch a television screen showing a news broadcast with file footage of a North Korean missile test, at a train station in Seoul on August 20, 2026. North Korea fired around 10 short-range ballistic missiles, South Korea's military said on August 20, hours after US President Donald Trump said he would meet Pyongyang's leader Kim Jong Un later this year. JUNG YEON-JE/AFP via Getty Images hide caption toggle caption JUNG YEON-JE/AFP via Getty Images SEOUL - North Korea rebuffed President Trump's apparent 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 military exercises. Asia Trump orders Pentagon to scale back joint military exercises with South Korea To reinforce its point, the North followed up later in the day 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 suggested the step isn't enough to convince it to return to talks. Sponsor Message In a statement carried by state media, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's sister Kim Yo Jong said Pyongyang regards the scaling back of the annual exercises 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 costly and send a hostile message to North Korea. He later said that he has reached out to Kim for a meeting and received a positive response. Pyongyang 'raises the price' of reengagement Kim Yo Jong, however, dismiss...