U.S. President Donald Trump has said North Korean leader Kim Jong Un wants to meet once again to "start negotiations" after joint U.S.-South Korea military exercises end. Trump tweeted on August 10 that Kim made these statements in a letter to him and that he looked "forward to seeing Kim Jong Un in the not too distant future!"

Trump said that Kim offered him "a small apology" for the flurry of recent short-range missile tests that have rattled U.S. allies in the region and that Kim assured him they would stop when the exercises end.

Also on August 10, an EU spokesperson accused Pyongyang of undermining efforts to denuclearize and bring lasting peace to the Korean Peninsula and urged Kim to return to talks.

South Korean defense officials described the dawn launches on August 10 as two short-range ballistic missiles that flew 400 kilometers before plummeting into the sea.

"With the launching of two short-range ballistic missiles today, a fifth such test in recent weeks, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) continues to undermine international work for building trust and establishing lasting peace and security on the Korean Peninsula, free of nuclear weapons. We expect the DPRK to refrain from any further provocations, abide by its stated commitments, and fully implement its international obligations as determined by multiple United Nations Security Council resolutions."

It called for more talks and urged "concrete and credible" moves from Pyongyang toward denuclearization and the abandonment of its ballistic-missile program.

© KCNANK leader Kim Jong-un guides the test firing of a new weapon, photo released 8/11/2019.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspected Saturday's test of a new weapon, state media KCNA said on Sunday, as a senior diplomat dismissed the possibility of inter-Korean talks in protest against South Korea-U.S. military drills. North Korea calls such exercises a "rehearsal for war" and has countered them with its own military action.

The new "projectiles" were developed to suit the country's terrain, and the latest test proved their "advantageous and powerful demand of the design was perfectly met," KCNA said.

Missile experts at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies in California said photos released by KCNA appear to show a new type of short-range ballistic missile, though detailed analysis is necessary.

"Given that the military exercise clearly puts us as an enemy in its concept," said Kwon Jong Gun, director-general for American affairs at the foreign ministry. "They should think that an inter-Korean contact itself will be difficult to be made unless they put an end to such a military exercise or before they make a plausible excuse or an explanation in a sincere manner."

Kwon said South Korea talked "nonsense" by urging the North to stop missile tests which served its right to self-defense. "Even the U.S. president made a remark which in effect recognizes the self-defensive rights of a sovereign state, saying that it is a small missile test which a lot of countries do," Kwon said.

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Much to the distress of neocons and humanitarian imperialists, there won't be a bloody mainland China crackdown on protesters in Hong Kong - a Tiananmen 2.0. Why? Because it's not worth it.

Beijing has clearly identified the color revolution provocation inbuilt in the protests - with the NED excelling as CIA soft, facilitating the sprawl of fifth columnists even in the civil service.

There are other components, of course. The fact that Hong Kongers are right to be angry about what is a de facto Tycoon Club oligarchy controlling every nook and cranny of the economy. The local backlash against "the invasion of the mainlanders". And the relentless cultural war of Cantonese vs. Beijing, north vs. south, province vs. political center.

What these protests have accelerated is Beijing's conviction that Hong Kong is not worth its trust as a key node in China's massive integration/development project. Beijing invested no less than $18.8 billion to build the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau bridge, as part of the Greater Bay Area, to integrate Hong Kong with the mainland, not to snub it.

Now a bunch of useful idiots at least has graphically proven they don't deserve any sort of preferential treatment anymore.