North Korea is not only firing off new missiles - it may also be learning to launch them faster

KCNA via Reuters

Unidentified short-range ballistic missile

• North Korea test-fired two suspected short-range ballistic missiles Thursday, which Seoul characterized as a "new type" of threat.
• US officials said North Korea appears to be shortening the time it takes to launch missiles, reducing the time the US and its allies have to detect a launch.
• Experts describe the weapons North Korea has been testing as potential first-strike weapons that could be used to start a war, given their ability to skirt defenses.
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North Korea tested a "new type" of missile on Thursday in the first test since President Donald Trump met North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at the Korean border last month.

North Korea test-fired two short-range missiles, one flying 267 miles and another 428 miles. Seoul assessed the weapons to be "a new type of short-range ballistic missile."

Many observers quickly determined that the test was an attempt to get the Trump administration's attention in the wake of several leadership summits that failed to produce an outcome preferred by either side. Evidence also suggests that North Korea is strengthening its arsenal to counter regional threats to its offensive capabilities - the only cards it holds in ongoing nuclear negotiations.

Read more: North Korea's latest missile test was an attempt to get Trump's attention after failed nuclear talks, experts say

North Korea twice in May tested a new short-range ballistic missile, which some have compared to Russia's SS-26 Iskander. It is unclear if the weapons tested Thursday included a modified variant of this weapon or something else entirely.

Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP

The North Koreans are "developing a reliable, operable missile that can defeat missile defenses and conduct a precision strike in South Korea," Grace Liu, a weapons expert at the Jams Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, told Reuters at the time.

Read more: Kim Jong Un launched a barrage of rockets and missiles in an unexpected show of force

Jeffrey Lewis, another CNS expert, suggested that the weapon's maneuverability seemed to indicate it was designed to skirt missile defenses, such as the Patriot and THAAD batteries deployed in South Korea.

Looking at the missiles tested Thursday, US officials told Reuters that their preliminary analysis indicated the weapons were similar to the ones tested in May but noted that the latest test appeared to involve missiles with enhanced capabilities.

One official revealed that North Korea appeared to be decreasing the time it takes to launch missiles, thus reducing the time the US and its allies have to detect a launch.

The missiles launched Thursday reached an altitude of only about 30 miles.

"If it's very low and very fast, that shortens warning and decision time," Adam Mount, director of the Defense Posture Project with the Federation of American Scientists, told CNN. "Those kinds of things could be useful in a retaliatory situation, but it's even more relevant for a first strike."

Melissa Hanham, another well-known missile expert, told Reuters in May, that the types of weapons North Korea is testing, weapons deemed by the Trump administration to be less important than the intercontinental ballistic missiles the country was building and testing in 2017, are the types of weapons "that will start the war."

South Korea described Thursday's missile test "as a military threat and an action undermining efforts to alleviate tensions on the Korean Peninsula," CNN reported.