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In the wake of the North Korean missile launches, the fourth in less than two weeks, Defense Secretary Mark Esper assured everyone that the US will not overreact so as to keep denuclearization talks going.
“While we take these launchings seriously, we monitor them, we try to understand what they’re doing and why. We also need to be careful not to overreact and not to get ourselves in a situation where diplomacy is closed off,” Esper told reporters.
According to the Pentagon, the missiles that North Korea fired were short-range ballistic missiles.
The missiles originated from South Hwanghae Province and flew across the country into the sea. South Korean officials added that the missile launches were a response to US and South Korean joint military exercises that began on August 3, 2019 and will last for around 2 weeks.
Esper visited Japan and South Korea this week in his first international trip since being appointed to head the Defense Department on July 23. He said that he will discuss the missile launches with his Japanese and South Korean counterparts.
In an attempt to come to a deal on denuclearization, Trump first met with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un in June 2018. A vague statement committing to denuclearization in the Korean Peninsula was the result of that meeting and Trump hoped to encourage movement in that direction by delaying large-scale joint exercises with South Korea which it holds twice a year.
Talks have bogged down since then and even a second summit in Vietnam didn’t result in a formal agreement. The third summit in June at the Demilitarized Zone produced a lot of media opportunities but still no accord.
In the meantime, Trump dismissed the latest launches as “standard” saying they did not violate the denuclearization agreement.
North Korea, however, says that the continuing joint US-South Korean military exercises do violate the agreement.
The exercises are called Dong Maeng which is already scaled down from the usual annual drill called Ulchi Freedom Guardian. However, North Korea still calls the exercises “hostile.”
Pressed by reporters on whether future military exercises with Seoul will be changed, Esper replied, “Not at this point.”
“We’ve made some adjustments after the presidents’ meeting last year and we’re still abiding by those and, again, in order to open the door for diplomacy, but at the same time we need to maintain our readiness and making sure that we’re prepared,” he said.
But at a later briefing, a senior US defense official said that Trump administration officials “haven’t seen the progress” from North Korea to achieve denuclearization nor reciprocating by drawing down its own military drills.
“We’d like to see them also respond in a way that says that they want to create space for diplomacy and work through these issues at the negotiating table. They haven’t. We’ll see what happens,” the official said.