North Korea Fires Missile Barrage Days After Trump Scales Back Major Drills

North Korea fired roughly 10 short-range ballistic missiles toward its eastern waters Thursday, days after President Donald Trump ordered the United States to scale back a major military exercise with South Korea.

The missiles were launched from the Pyongyang area at about 5 p.m. local time and traveled roughly 300 kilometers before falling toward the sea east of North Korea, Associated Press reported, citing South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff. South Korean military officials increased surveillance following the launches and coordinated intelligence with the United States and Japan.

The barrage came as the United States and South Korea approached the end of a shortened version of Ulchi Freedom Shield, one of the allies’ major annual military exercises.

Ulchi Freedom Shield began Monday and was originally scheduled to continue through Aug. 27, but the two countries agreed to end the drills on Friday and reduce some combined field training at Trump’s request, Reuters reported.

The exercises are used to train U.S. and South Korean forces for wartime missions and maintain combined readiness, according to U.S. Forces Korea.

Trump ordered Secretary of War Pete Hegseth to “substantially reduce” the exercises shortly before they began, citing their cost, his relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korea’s refusal to support the United States in its war with Iran, according to a