North Korea responds to Trump’s meeting offer with cruise missile launch

Seoul: North Korea has remained tight-lipped about US President Donald Trump’s repeated offer to meet leader Kim Jong-un, responding only with a cruise missile test-fire, a move analysts interpreted as likely ‘rejecting’ the offer.

The North’s state-run Korean Central News Agency reported it test-fired sea-to-surface strategic cruise missiles in the Yellow Sea on Tuesday after improving them for ship-based launches.

The surprise missile test was reported hours before President Trump arrived in South Korea to attend Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation events in the southeastern city of Gyeongju and hold talks with President Lee Jae Myung and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Ahead of and during his ongoing Asia swing, President Trump has repeatedly extended offers to meet with Kim, which would mark the first meeting between them in more than six years if it takes place.

Trump called North Korea a “sort of nuclear power,” suggesting the possibility of negotiating sanctions relief with the country. He also said he could extend his trip for a meeting with Kim.

North Korea’s state media had remained silent on Trump’s meeting offers as of Wednesday morning. Trump is staying in South Korea from Wednesday to Thursday.

Lim Eul-chul, a professor at Kyungnam University’s Institute for Far Eastern Studies, interpreted Tuesday’s missile launch as a signal that reaffirms Kim’s rejection of Trump’s “tenacious meeting offers.”

“I view the likelihood of a US-North Korea meeting as having gone down,” he said.

North Korea now appears to have fewer incentives to re-engage with the US at a time when its military alignment with Russia provides the country room to circumvent international sanctions and its once-restrained ties with China are recovering.

Speaking at a parliamentary meeting last month, Kim said the North remains open to talks with the US if Washington drops demands to de-nuclearise. But he also added that the country will never engage in any quid pro quo negotiations with enemies for the sake of sanctions relief.

Experts also predicted North Korea may be waiting for Washington to offer a bigger compromise, such as the suspension of joint military exercises with South Korea, before deciding to engage in talks, Yonhap news agency reported.

The possibility of a Trump-Kim meeting may nevertheless remain in place, albeit highly limited, until Trump leaves the Korean Peninsula, they said.

IANS