North Korea fired two short-range missiles on Thursday.

Just 10 minutes later, the United States seemed to have fired an intercontinental ballistic missile test of their own in an intimidation effort and a warning to North Korea as to not do anything stupid.

According to Fox News,

The launch, the second such move in less than a week, occurred around 4:30 p.m. local time from the North’s Sino-ri missile base, the South’s joint chiefs of staff said in a statement. The base is located around 130 miles north of the border with South Korea. The missiles flew 260 and 170 miles respectively, according to South Korean military officials. The U.S. insisted the timing of their own test was entirely coincidental.

The base is believed to operate Rodong short- and medium-range ballistic missiles, according to the New York Times.

So they say that the timing was completely coincidental, but of course, they would say that wouldn’t they?

The New York Times reports,

“With this launching, North Korea is making clear that it is demanding more than the mere humanitarian food aid South Korea and the United States are discussing,” said Mr. Lee, of the Institute for Far Eastern Studies at Kyungnam University.

Analysts have noted that North Korea’s decision to launch short-range projectiles suggested that Mr. Kim had not given up hope on resuming negotiations. Mr. Trump has repeatedly cited Mr. Kim’s moratorium on nuclear and long-range missile tests as a reason to continue talks with the North.

With the United States still indicating that it is willing to continue talks, Mr. Kim is “posturing for what’s going to happen when they get there,” Michael Bosack, a special adviser for government relations at the Yokosuka Council on Asia-Pacific Studies in Japan, said after Thursday’s launches.

“The U.S. has not said, ‘If you keep doing this we’re cutting off talks,’” Mr. Bosack said. “Even after this last test this past weekend, the response from the U.S. was ‘we still want to talk,’ so this is to generate urgency and improve his position at the negotiating table.”

In light of this and everything else, President Trump still wants a deal with North Korea.

Anything in this very interesting world is possible, but I believe that Kim Jong Un fully realizes the great economic potential of North Korea, & will do nothing to interfere or end it. He also knows that I am with him & does not want to break his promise to me. Deal will happen!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 4, 2019

Maybe all of this testing is part of an agreement. Or maybe it’s to try and gain some leverage in the negotiation talks.