US says it is aware of report of North Korea's missile launch

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un smiles as he guides missile testing at an unidentified location in North Korea, in this undated image provided by KCNA on Aug. 7. Reuters

The United States is aware of reports of a missile launch from North Korea and is consulting closely with its allies, South Korea and Japan, a senior U.S. government official said Friday.

North Korea fired two unidentified projectiles off its east coast Saturday (Seoul time), according to South Korea's military, the regime's fifth launch in just over two weeks.

"We are aware of reports of a missile launch from North Korea, and we continue to monitor the situation," the official told Yonhap News Agency. "We are consulting closely with our Japanese and South Korean allies."

North Korea has said the series of launches sends a warning to South Korea and the U.S. over their joint military exercises that began this week.

Seoul has described the projectiles involved in the four previous launches as short-range ballistic missiles, which the North is banned from testing under U.N. Security Council resolutions.

North Korea fires two short-range ballistic missiles into East Sea: JCS 2019-08-10 09:18  |  North Korea
U.S. President Donald Trump has brushed them off and reaffirmed his commitment to continuing diplomacy with the regime.

Speaking to reporters earlier Friday, Trump said he had received another "very beautiful" letter from North Korea's leader the previous day, in which Kim Jong-un expressed his displeasure with the allied exercises.

"He wasn't happy with the test ― the war games, the war games on the other side with the United States," the president said, adding that he has never liked them either. "I don't like paying for it. We should be reimbursed for it and I've told that to South Korea."

Trump said he allowed the current exercises to go ahead because they allowed a "turnover of various areas" to South Korea, a reference to the drill's aim of testing Seoul's capabilities to retake operational control from Washington during wartime.

"I like that because that's what should happen," he said. (Yonhap)

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