North Korea Missile Test is a Game-Changing Act

Posted: August 3rd, 2016

By Fran Moore

Fran Moore is a retired Central Intelligence Agency senior executive with 32 years of leadership and intelligence analysis experience. She served as the Director for Intelligence (now Analysis) from 2010 to 2014, Deputy Director for Intelligence, Deputy Director for Analytic Programs, Director and Deputy Director of Terrorism Analysis in the Counterterrorism Center and Chief, Deputy Chief of Counterintelligence Analysis.

North Korea is once again taking provocative actions, this time launching two ballistic missiles in which one landed for the first time in Japanese controlled waters. Last month, North Korea fired three short-range missiles into the sea. The latest series of tests, which violate UN resolutions, come on the heels of an agreement last month between Washington and Seoul to deploy the THAAD missile defense system in South Korea. Annual military exercises between the U.S. and South Korea are also scheduled for later this month.

The Cipher Brief talked with Fran Moore, the CIA’s former Director of Intelligence, about the significance of North Korea’s latest actions and why she sees them as a game-changing act.

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