North Korea has sped up the rate at which it test fires missiles during the Donald Trump administration in an effort to show the new president it is "serious" as a world player, NBC News reported.
The regime of Kim Jong Un does not care a large number of the missile tests have failed, U.S. officials told NBC.
"They want to show they can," one official was quoted as saying. "They believe they learn something new from every launch, success or failure."
Many of the missiles, including the NK-17 that blew up five minutes after launch last Friday, might not even be ready.
The Musudan is the most advanced of North Korea's missiles tested to date, but it has failed six out of eight times, NBC reported, adding one top CIA analyst joked it "comes equipped with its own fire extinguisher."
While the country launched no missiles between Trump's election in early November and his inauguration Jan. 20, it has since fired off 10 missiles, half of which have succeeded.
The tests come during a time of higher tensions between the United States and North Korea. The United States has more than 28,000 service members stationed in South Korea.
Kim has bragged he will be able to launch a nuclear missile capable of reaching the U.S. mainland, but has not conducted any new nuclear testing since Trump's meeting last month with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Trump has publicly urged China, North Korea's only ally in the region, to put pressure on Kim to stop his nuclear testing.
Still, Pyongyang said Monday it planned to increase its nuclear tests "to the maximum."
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