{"id":655133,"date":"2026-08-20T14:15:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T14:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/?p=655133"},"modified":"2026-08-20T14:15:00","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T14:15:00","slug":"north-korea-fires-barrage-of-missiles-as-kim-plays-hard-to-get-after-trump-overture-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/?p=655133","title":{"rendered":"North Korea Fires Barrage Of Missiles As Kim Plays Hard To Get, After Trump Overture"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden\">North Korea Fires Barrage Of Missiles As Kim Plays Hard To Get, After Trump Overture<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item\">\n<p>The South Korean government has observed an<strong> alarming new launch of a missile barrage by North Korea on Thursday<\/strong>, announcing that\u00a0an unidentified projectile was fired off the peninsula&#8217;s east coast on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The Joint Chiefs of Staff said the launches of about <strong>10 short-range ballistic missiles<\/strong> happened from North Korea\u2019s capital region around 5 p.m. (0800 GMT) on Thursday,&#8221; the Associated Press <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/south-north-korea-projectile-launch-military-exercises-b3af05067e4258f90f67023c7b2b3e9a\">details<\/a>. &#8220;The military said the missiles flew about 300 kilometers (185 miles) each toward North Korea\u2019s eastern waters.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a data-image-external-href=\"\" data-image-href=\"\/s3\/files\/inline-images\/newlaunchnk.jpg?itok=gSuAs4ja\" data-link-option=\"0\" href=\"https:\/\/cms.zerohedge.com\/s3\/files\/inline-images\/newlaunchnk.jpg?itok=gSuAs4ja\"><\/a><\/p>\n<figure role=\"group\" class=\"caption caption-img inline-images image-style-inline-images\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" data-entity-type=\"file\" data-entity-uuid=\"3f2b01dd-ea4b-49fe-8a88-5a32e2df13d0\" data-responsive-image-style=\"inline_images\" height=\"330\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.zerohedge.com\/s3fs-public\/styles\/inline_image_mobile\/public\/inline-images\/newlaunchnk.jpg?itok=gSuAs4ja\" width=\"500\" \/><figcaption><em>via Reuters<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The military said South Korea has<strong> bolstered its surveillance posture<\/strong> and was closely coordinating information on the launches with the U.S. and Japan,&#8221; AP adds based on the statement. &#8220;South Korea\u2019s presidential national security council issued a statement urging North Korea to halt ballistic missile launches.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The new test is obviously meant to send a strong message, given it follows Pyongyang&#8217;s dismissal of President Trump&#8217;s decision to scale back US military exercises with South Korea this week.<\/p>\n<p>Without doubt, Kim Jong-Un is welcoming the sudden attention from Trump, <strong>but if there&#8217;s hope of rekindling the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=tH-FcTklKcs\">&#8216;bromance&#8217;<\/a>\u00a0&#8211; this is basically Kim playing hard to get<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>North Korea&#8217;s stance is that simply scaling back the exercises doesn&#8217;t make them any less provocative and less of a threat to its national security.<\/p>\n<p>The North Korean strongman&#8217;s influential sister has weighed in: &#8220;We think it\u2019s not worth making comments on that and <strong>we have no interest in it at all<\/strong>,&#8221; she said, as cited in state media. &#8220;The provocative, aggressive nature of the drills won\u2019t change even though their duration and size were reduced,&#8221; she added.<\/p>\n<p>President Trump has been questioned by reporters on if there is currently an exchange of letters or any level of dialogue between Pyongyang and Washington.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Kim Yo Jong as part of her statement <strong>denied that there&#8217;s any communication<\/strong>: &#8220;If the U.S. calculates that it can propagate its recent measure as the one of so-called good faith,<strong> they will not get the desired answer<\/strong>,&#8221; she also said.<\/p>\n<p>However, there was this key caveat and positive remark <a href=\"https:\/\/www.euronews.com\/2026\/08\/20\/north-korea-says-trumps-scale-back-of-joint-military-exercises-with-south-korea-changes-no\">in passing<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><em>Kim Yo Jong&#8217;s statement did not contain North Korea\u2019s typically harsh rhetoric. She briefly said relations between her brother and Trump are &#8220;still excellent,&#8221; mentioning her brother\u2019s past comments that <strong>he still has &#8220;good memories&#8221; of Trump<\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>So there it is&#8230; Kim is playing hard to get while recalling all the fond memories.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>As for the White House, it probably needs a new distraction on the foreign policy front, given how much the Iran war has turned against Washington&#8217;s favor. If another face-to-face Trump-Kim meeting actually materialized down the line, it would certainly take over the headlines, at least temporarily.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\" xml:lang=\"en\">Q: You said North Korea has 57 nuclear weapons, is your goal denuclearization?<\/p>\n<p>Trump: I don&#8217;t want to talk about that but I have a good relationship with Kim Jong Un. I like him. I didn&#8217;t like doing these exercises against North Korea <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/9q74leMwpZ\">pic.twitter.com\/9q74leMwpZ<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Headquarters (@HQNewsNow) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/HQNewsNow\/status\/2090167333394272338?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 19, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>On Kim, Trump said this week: &#8220;The fact that I get along with him, that\u2019s a good thing.&#8221; He explained:<strong> &#8220;You can\u2019t let Iran have a nuclear weapon. And I know Kim Jong Un very well, and he\u2019s going to be fine as long as we have a smart president<\/strong>.<strong>&#8220;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Suddenly everyone gains immediate respect when they achieve nukes &#8211; even the &#8216;rogue&#8217; actors &#8211; which is something Tehran has no doubt long observed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>      <span class=\"field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden\"><a title=\"View user profile.\" href=\"https:\/\/cms.zerohedge.com\/users\/tyler-durden\" lang=\"\" class=\"username\" xml:lang=\"\">Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span><br \/>\n<span class=\"field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden\">Thu, 08\/20\/2026 &#8211; 10:15<\/span><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.zerohedge.com\/s3fs-public\/styles\/inline_image_mobile\/public\/inline-images\/newlaunchnk.jpg?itok=gSuAs4ja\" title=\"North Korea Fires Barrage Of Missiles As Kim Plays Hard To Get, After Trump Overture\" \/><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>North Korea Fires Barrage Of Missiles As Kim Plays Hard To Get, After Trump Overture The South Korean government has observed an alarming new launch of a missile barrage by North Korea on Thursday, announcing that\u00a0an unidentified projectile was fired off the peninsula&#8217;s east coast on Thursday. &#8220;The Joint Chiefs of Staff said the launches&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/?p=655133\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">North Korea Fires Barrage Of Missiles As Kim Plays Hard To Get, After Trump Overture<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":655128,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[20,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-655133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economic-empowerment","category-national-security","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=655133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655133\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/655128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=655133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=655133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=655133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}