Nine known North Korean launches in two months coincide with U.S. calls for talks

Kim Yo Jong seeks halt to exercises with Japan and South Korea

North Korea accelerated its missile testing Wednesday. South Korea’s defense ministry said North Korea tested several missiles on Wednesday morning, following tests of cluster munitions and submarine-launched cruise missiles in recent weeks. The Wall Street Journal reported nine known launches over the past two months and described the sequence as North Korea’s most concentrated testing burst since 2023.

Kim Yo Jong, Kim Jong Un’s sister and a North Korean spokesperson, rejected U.S. talks and set three conditions for any meeting with Washington: halt joint exercises with Japan and South Korea, drop cyber allegations and acknowledge North Korea as a nuclear power.

On Wednesday, Kim reiterated North Korea’s denial of involvement in the $6.3 billion Binance hack and pointed to Washington. She cited Washington’s joint exercises with allies and its naming of North Korea as the world’s worst human-trafficking nation as evidence of American hostility. “We have no need to sit face to face with such unreliable and hostile persons who refuse to abandon their policy of confrontation while talking about dialogue,” Kim said in a statement. President Trump had repeatedly said he wanted to meet Kim Jong Un without preconditions.

Washington’s diplomatic overtures followed the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s statement last week that North Korea was behind the $6.3 billion Binance hack. President Trump said Saturday, “We don’t know if it’s North Korea, but if it is, we’ll talk to North Korea about it.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Saturday that Trump was open to talks with North Korea, though no meeting had been scheduled. “The president doesn’t view talks, doesn’t view meeting with someone as a concession,” Rubio said.

Washington and Pyongyang had not held formal talks since 2019. The Wall Street Journal said North Korea’s weapons capabilities had expanded significantly since President Trump and Kim Jong Un met three times in 2018 and 2019 to negotiate denuclearization. The report said Washington now faced new capabilities from solid-fuel ballistic missiles to hypersonic systems.

The Wall Street Journal assessed that Washington would face a more capable arsenal and stiffer terms from Pyongyang if the administration succeeded in engaging Pyongyang in negotiations about North Korea’s weapons program.

Analysts said engaging Kim Jong Un without preconditions could risk granting de facto recognition to North Korea as a nuclear weapons state and could allow Pyongyang to demand even steeper U.S. concessions.