North Korea fires missiles hours after Trump announces plans to meet Kim Jong Un again

• North Korea fired more than 10 short-range ballistic missiles hours after Donald Trump announced plans to meet Kim Jong Un.

• South Korea condemned the launches, calling them a violation of UN Security Council resolutions.

• The missile tests happened during the US-South Korea Ulchi Freedom Shield military exercises, which were shortened this year.

• Kim Jong Un's sister had earlier said the relationship between Trump and her brother remains "excellent", despite no known active communication.

North Korea has once again reminded the world that with Pyongyang, things can change in a matter of hours.

Just hours after US President Donald Trump announced that he plans to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un later this year, North Korea fired more than 10 short-range ballistic missiles into the East Sea, according to South Korea's military.

The launches happened around 5:00 pm local time on Thursday from the Pyongyang area, with the missiles travelling roughly 300 kilometres before landing in the sea.

The timing immediately raised eyebrows.

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Speaking at the White House on Wednesday, Trump told reporters he intends to meet Kim before the end of the year as he tries to revive the unusual relationship both leaders built during his first term.

The US president said it was important to "get along" with Kim, adding that North Korea now possesses 57 "very powerful" nuclear weapons. South Korean estimates, however, put the country's stockpile at between 80 and 120 nuclear warheads.

Despite Trump's latest diplomatic push, North Korea's missile launch appears to have sent a very different message.

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff confirmed that more than 10 short-range ballistic missiles were launched toward the East Sea.

Military officials from both South Korea and the United States are analysing the missiles to determine their exact specifications.

Following the launch, South Korea's presidential office held an emergency national security meeting, describing the missile tests as a violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions.

The government also ordered the military to remain on heightened alert.

The missile launches came while South Korea and the United States are carrying out the annual Ulchi Freedom Shield military exercises.

Although the drills were shortened this year after Trump reportedly requested they be scaled back, North Korea has consistently criticised the exercises, describing them as rehearsals for an invasion.

The Pentagon, however, insisted the shorter exercise would cause "no degradation to US training objectives."

The drills are designed to prepare allied forces in case of an attack from North Korea.

Interestingly, just a day before the missile launch, Kim Yo Jong, the influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, spoke positively about Trump.

She said her brother still has "good memories and feelings" about the US president and that the relationship between both leaders remains "excellent".

However, she also noted that she was unaware of any ongoing communication between Trump and Kim.

Trump's renewed interest in direct talks with Kim has unsettled several US allies in Asia, especially after Washington reduced the scale of joint military drills with South Korea.

Analysts believe the US president may be hoping to score another diplomatic breakthrough as progress on other foreign policy fronts has slowed.

Meanwhile, South Korea has maintained that it does not support officially recognising North Korea as a nuclear-weapon state.

South Korean Defence Minister Ahn Gyu-back said he does not believe Washington has abandoned the goal of denuclearising North Korea.

President Lee Jae Myung also pledged to support Trump's efforts to reduce tensions on the Korean Peninsula while continuing to strengthen South Korea's own defence capabilities.

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North Korea's latest missile test highlights just how fragile diplomacy on the Korean Peninsula remains.

While Trump is talking about another face-to-face meeting with Kim Jong Un, the missile launches show that military tensions are still very much alive.

Whether both leaders eventually meet later this year remains uncertain, but Thursday's developments prove that peace talks with North Korea rarely follow a straightforward path.