The U.S. does not believe that North Korea successfully tested a new weapon after the country’s state media claimed that there was a test firing of a “new-type tactical guided weapon,” CNN reported Thursday, citing a U.S. official.
U.S. authorities reportedly believe North Korea tested components for an anti-tank weapon and not a fully-functional new weapon, based on an initial assessment of information from satellites and aircrafts.
The official told CNN that if it was a full anti-tank weapon, it would have been detected, but it was not.
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Acting Defense Secretary Patrick ShanahanPatrick Michael ShanahanOvernight Defense: US strike in Somalia kills ISIS deputy | Trump’s love of acting officials | Terrorist designation against Iranian military unit takes effect | Kim sets deadline for talks with US Trump learns to love acting officials Overnight Defense: Shanahan expects more troops to deploy to border | Transgender ban takes effect | International court rejects probe into alleged Afghanistan war crimes MORE had confirmed earlier Thursday that North Korea conducted a weapons test but that the weapon was “not a ballistic missile.”
“I’m not going to go into the detailed intelligence, but the way I’d characterize is it is not a ballistic missile,” he told reporters.
North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Wednesday that leader Kim Jong Un watched the country’s latest test.
“After watching the power of the new-type tactical guided weapon, [Kim] pointed out that our national defense scientists and workers in the field of the munitions industry performed another great work in increasing the country’s defense capabilities,” KCNA said, according to South Korean news agency Yonhap.