US Intel to See If North Korea Tested Missile With New Properties

The U.S. intelligence community will attempt to determine if North Korea's recent launch of three ballistic missiles utilized previously unseen technology, CNN reports.

Of the three missiles that were fired on Wednesday, one reportedly moved in a trajectory known as a "double arc" in which the projectile ascended and then descended twice. This could show that North Korea is looking for a way to fire a missile that can re-enter the atmosphere in order to hit a target, two U.S. officials told the news network.

Japanese Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi publicly said after the launch that one of the missiles flew in an "irregular trajectory." The Pentagon said in a statement this week that Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin spoke with South Korean Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup in order to discuss assessments and response measures for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's [DPRK] recent ballistic missile launches."

A senior White House official said on Thursday that the U.S. and South Korea are currently trying to find the "right mix" of responses to North Korea's actions.

"We have no illusions that there is a magic sort of solution to any of this," Edgard Kagan, special assistant to President Joe Biden and senior director for East Asia and Oceania at the National Security Council, said during a seminar for a Washington, D.C., think tank, according to the Korea Herald.

"These are long-standing issues, but I think that we remain committed and I think I saw a great deal of sort of shared vision between President Yoon and President [Joe] Biden on the need for making sure that we are able to do what we need to do, and at same time making sure that we send clear signals that we seek serious and sustained diplomacy," he continued.

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