U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday that the United States is monitoring  North Korea "very seriously," describing projectiles launched by the North earlier in the day as "smaller, short range missiles." 

Trump told reporters at the White House that the U.S. is looking at the situation very seriously and that nobody's happy about it.

He added that he knows North Korea wants to negotiate, but that he does not think Pyongyang is ready to do so at the present time. Trump also said North Korea has tremendous economic potential and that he does not think the country will waste it, echoing similar statements the U.S. president has made in the past.

North Korea fired two suspected short-range missiles into the East Sea late Thursday afternoon, just five days after it launched multiple projectiles in the same direction off its eastern coast.

The launches come amid a stalemate in denuclearization talks since the second North Korea-U.S. summit ended without a deal in February.

Though both Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un have expressed openness to a third summit since then, the recent weapons tests may serve to amplify the difficulties the two sides face in reaching a mutually acceptable deal on the North’s denuclearization.