Trump: ‘Nobody’s happy’ about latest North Korea projectile launch

President Trump said Thursday that “nobody’s happy” about the latest reports that North Korea test-launched projectiles, but said he does not believe the country’s leader, Kim Jong Un, will abandon negotiations to denuclearize.

“We’re looking at it very seriously right now. They were smaller missiles. Short-range missiles,” Trump told reporters at the White House when asked about the second reported test launch in the past week.

{mosads}”Nobody’s happy about it, but we’re taking a good look and we’ll see. We’ll see,” Trump continued. “The relationship continues, but we’ll see what happens. I know they want to negotiate, they’re talking about negotiating, but I don’t think they’re ready to negotiate.”

South Korea’s military said Thursday that North Korea had fired an unidentified projectile that was believed to have traveled roughly 260 miles.

Late Friday, the Trump administration said it was monitoring a new report that North Korea had test-launched projectiles for the first time since 2017.

The test launches have scrambled efforts from the Trump administration to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula through negotiations directly with Kim.

Trump has met one-on-one with Kim twice in the past year. The two held negotiations in Singapore last summer, and engaged in talks in Vietnam earlier this year. The latter summit between the two leaders ended abruptly and without concrete next steps.

Despite skeptics’ insistence that Kim is not to be trusted and will not abandon his nuclear arsenal, Trump said Thursday that he believes the North Korean strongman will take the economic benefits of denuclearization into account.

“North Korea has tremendous potential economically, and I don’t think he’s going to blow that,” Trump said.

As Trump spoke in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Department of Justice officials announced the seizure of a North Korean cargo vessel for violation U.S. sanctions. Attorneys with the Southern District of New York said the cargo ship imported machinery while concealing its affiliation with the Korean’s People Army.

Updated 2:03 p.m.