Trump has previously dismissed the strategic importance of these types of short-range weapons tests since they are not designed to carry a nuclear payload and lack the capability of reaching the United States. According to several United Nations resolutions, North Korea is banned from testing ballistic missile technology.

“I think that we have a very good relationship. We’ll see what happens,” Trump said of the North Korean dictator, who he has repeatedly praised in the past. “That could always change, but we’ll see what happens. Kim Jong un has been, you know, pretty straight with me, I think, and we are going to see what’s going on, what’s happening. He likes testing missiles. But we never restricted short range missiles. We’ll see what happens. Many nations test those missiles. We tested a very big one the other day as you probably noticed.”