The United States military would not necessarily shoot down a North Korean intercontinental ballistic missile should it try to test one, U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said on Tuesday.
"If the missile is threatening it will be intercepted," he said. "If it is not threatening, we won't necessarily do so ... it may be more to our advantage to first of all save our interceptor inventory, and second to gather intelligence from the flight rather than do that when it's not threatening."