On Wednesday evening, Aug. 21 -- The concession lasted less than twenty-four hours.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's sister and the voice his government uses to communicate its most consequential signals - made clear that Washington and Seoul's decision to scale back their annual military exercises had changed nothing. The drills remained "provocative and aggressive," she said, regardless of their duration. If Washington thought reducing the exercises could be "propagated as a measure of so-called good faith," she added, "they will not get the desired answer."

By Thursday evening, North Korea had fired approximately ten short-range ballistic missiles toward the sea.

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff confirmed that the missiles were ...