The US military would not necessarily shoot down a North Korean intercontinental ballistic missile, should the country's leader try to test one, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said Tuesday.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un said in a New Year's speech that the country was "in the final stages of test-launching the intercontinental ballistic missile."
Carter, whose two-year run as Pentagon chief will come to an end when President Barack Obama leaves office January 20 and Donald Trump is inaugurated, said in his final news conference that it might make sense to watch such a test without taking action.
"If the missile is threatening it will be intercepted. If it is not threatening, we won't necessarily do so," he said.
"It may be more to our advantage to first of all save our interceptor inventory, and second to gather intelligence from the flight," he added.
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