US President Donald Trump: No one is happy when North Korea launches missiles
President Trump was not “happy” about North Korea’s missile launch but affirmed that US-North Korea relations will continue.
US President Donald Trump has downplayed the prospect of a diplomatic breakthrough with North Korea hours after Pyongyang tested suspected missiles for the second time in less than a week.
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US President Donald Trump. Photo: Reuters |
"I don't think they're ready to negotiate. Now we're going to take a serious look at it. Nobody's happy about it," President Trump said on May 9 at the White House.
North Korea fired two projectiles suspected to be “short-range missiles,” the South Korean military said on May 9. The move came just days after the North tested several new weapons last week.
Despite the "setbacks" on the nuclear issue in North Korea, President Trump declared that the US-North Korea relationship will continue.
Just before President Trump spoke out about North Korea's missile launches, the US Justice Department announced that it had seized a North Korean cargo ship believed to be violating sanctions imposed on the country.
The bulk carrier Wise Honest was “used to smuggle coal from North Korea and to transport heavy machinery to the country,” the Justice Department asserted, alleging that “funds for the Wise Honest’s maintenance, equipment, and repairs were all transacted in U.S. dollars.”
According to the US Department of Justice, "this action violates US law and United Nations Security Council resolutions."
North Korea's May 9 moves are the latest sign that the negotiation process is going downhill between the US and North Korea after the second US-North Korea Summit ended without reaching any agreement.
A North Korean diplomat last month asked US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to withdraw from the talks, but Pompeo insisted that he was "still in charge" of diplomatic efforts and seeking to break the current deadlock in the negotiations./.
