This archive report was first published on 1 August 2019.
Published on August 1, 2019, North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles on Wednesday, prompting warnings from Pyongyang that the joint US-South Korea military drills must be halted for improved inter-Korean relations.
The drills, set to begin on Monday, have been scaled down earlier this year amid diplomatic exchanges with North Korea. However, the military activities on both sides raise questions over the prospects for an imminent start to negotiations on Pyongyang's nuclear arsenal.
Washington is Seoul's security ally and stations 28,500 troops in the South against its nuclear-armed neighbour. The annual drills have always enraged Pyongyang, which sees them as a rehearsal for invasion.
Pyongyang's state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said on Wednesday that peace and military exercises could "never go together". An "overall and permanent halt to anti-north war drills" was a "prerequisite" for improving inter-Korean relations, it added.
Despite the North's threats, a senior US official said on Thursday that there was "no adjustment or change in plans". The official stated that the US had to give diplomats appropriate space for their diplomacy and help create an environment conducive to talks when they resume.
Pyongyang and Washington are engaged in a long-running diplomatic process over the North's nuclear and missile programmes. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un agreed to resume nuclear talks during their impromptu June meeting in the Demilitarised Zone.
The North is banned from ballistic missile launches under UN Security Council resolutions. Seoul said the devices fired on Wednesday from the Wonsan area on the east coast were two short-range ballistic missiles that travelled around 250 kilometres.
