The leaders of the U.S. and Japan on Sunday revealed differences in their assessment of the seriousness of North Korea's recent short-range missile launches.

Ahead of a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of this year’s G7 summit in France, U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters that while he was “not happy” about the launches, the firings did not violate an agreement on long-range ballistic missiles.

Downplaying the provocations, Trump said that Kim has tested “much more standard” short-range missiles that “a lot of people are testing.”

He added that he received a “very nice letter” from Kim last week and that Kim was upset about South Korea's "war games."

Trump appeared to share Kim's negative assessment of combined U.S.-South Korea military exercises, saying that he thinks they are "unnecessary” and “a total waste of money.”

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, however, was more severe in his assessment of the missile launches, calling them a clear violation of UN Security Council resolutions and "extremely regrettable." 

Nevertheless, Abe added that he and Trump “will always stay on the same page when it comes to North Korea” and that he supports the U.S.-North Korea process “100 percent.”