U.S. assessing N. Korean missile but U.S. safe from claimed hypersonic missile: U.S. commander

WASHINGTON, Sept. 30 (Yonhap) -- The United States is still assessing the type of the missile launched by North Korea this week but the U.S. homeland would remain safe even if it turns out to be a hypersonic missile as claimed by the North, the commander of North American Aerospace Defense Command said Thursday.

North Korea on Wednesday (Seoul time) said it fired a new hypersonic missile the previous day.

"I understand the intelligence community's still making an assessment of the North Korean claim to have tested a hypersonic," Gen. Glen VanHerck said in a Department of Defense press briefing that he took part in virtually.

"We'll just have to see that capability right now. It would be my assessment that the homeland would be safe and secure from a hypersonic capability as North Korea claims they have tested," he added when asked if the U.S. missile defense could still protect the U.S. mainland from North Korean hypersonic missiles.

bdk@yna.co.kr
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