(Aug 20): North Korea fired a suspected ballistic missile on Thursday, a day after it dismissed US President Donald Trump’s overtures to revive dialogue.

Seoul’s military said North Korea had filed a projectile off its east coast, Yonhap News reported. Japan’s coast guard said it may have been a ballistic missile, citing the country’s defence ministry. South Korea’s Defence Ministry did not immediately respond to request for comment.

The launch comes shortly after Pyongyang cast doubt on Trump’s suggestion that high-level communication between the two countries’ leaders had been revived. It also dismissed the US decision to scale back joint military drills with South Korea.

The shock move, which saw military exercises cancelled after the annual drills had got underway, was shrugged off by Pyongyang which said that despite the “excellent” relationship between Trump and its leader Kim Jong Un, America’s hostile policy towards the North remained unchanged.

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung nevertheless welcomed Trump’s move as a potential opening for renewed diplomacy. 

“The latest message from President Trump strikes me as a major decision reflecting deep consideration of how to move beyond hostility and confrontation and build peace on the Korean Peninsula,” South Korean President Lee Jae Myung said in a late-night X post on Wednesday.

The launch also comes just hours after South Korea’s defence minister said North Korea may possess as many as 120 nuclear weapons, more than twice the 57 warheads cited by Trump. 

“The numbers appear to be somewhat different,” Defence Minister Ahn Gyu-back told lawmakers on Thursday when asked about Trump’s assessment. “We usually look at around 80 to 120,” he said, referring to South Korea’s estimates.

Ahn later clarified that he was citing an assessment by a South Korean research institute. “As for the military’s own assessment, there are considerable limitations on what I can disclose here,” he said.

The discrepancy underscores the scale of the challenge confronting Trump as he tries to resurrect the personal diplomacy with Kim that defined his first time as president. Trump earlier said that Kim has “57 very powerful nuclear weapons” and he “wouldn’t have allowed it” if he had been president as the arsenal expanded.

“I know Kim Jong Un very well, and he’s going to be fine. As long as we have a smart president, he’s going to be fine,” Trump said.

Trump and Kim met three times during the US leader’s first term, but the talks failed to curb North Korea’s nuclear ambitions. Kim has since emerged as a key ally of Russia in President Vladimir Putin’s war against Ukraine, leaving him with few incentives to immediately engage with the US over his prized nuclear programme.

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