North Korea fires missiles at South Korea

South Korea’s Defense Ministry said Saturday that North Korea fired at least one “unidentified projectile” eastward, weeks after Pyongyang dismissed Seoul’s latest peace overtures as a “deceptive farce.”

North Korea fired at least one “unidentified projectile towards the east”, Seoul’s Defense Ministry said in a statement, without providing details.

Pyongyang recently dashed hopes of a diplomatic thaw with Washington’s security ally South Korea, describing its latest peace efforts as a “clumsy and deceptive farce.”

The announcement came just hours after South Korean Prime Minister Kim Min-seok said that US President Donald Trump believes a meeting with Pyongyang leader Kim Jong Un would be “good”.

For decades, Washington has led efforts to dismantle North Korea’s nuclear program, but summits, sanctions and diplomatic pressure have had little impact.

In recent months, the Trump administration has pushed to revive high-level talks with Pyongyang, eyeing a possible summit with Kim Jong Un this year, potentially during Trump’s April visit to Beijing.

Seoul’s Kim, who met Trump in Washington, said the US president had told him: “The (Kim Jong Un) meeting would be good” and “it could happen when we go to China this time, or not.”

During a trip to Asia in October, Trump said he was “100%” open to meeting with Kim Jong Un, a remark that received no response from the North.

After largely ignoring these overtures for months, Kim Jong Un recently said the two nations could “get along” if Washington accepted Pyongyang’s nuclear status.

AFP