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(CNN) - Now that Christmas passed without a "gift" from the North Korean regime, US officials are baffled as to why Kim Jong Un decided not to conduct an arms test until now.
The Trump administration had broadly interpreted North Korea's promise of a "Christmas gift" as an arms test, especially as intelligence indicators grew. Officials remain vigilant in the days after the holiday.
Although a source familiar with North Korea's thinking had told CNN that the regime was unlikely to conduct a provocative test, US officials widely expected some kind of test during Christmas, according to intelligence reports that some components of Weapons had moved. US officials believe that the window for a test will still be open until Kim's birthday in early January.
"It may be a good gift," President Donald Trump joked Tuesday at Mar-a-Lago when asked how he would respond if Pyongyang fired a missile during the holidays. “Maybe he is present where he sends me a beautiful vase instead of a missile test… You don't know it. You never know. "
The administration has previously approved a series of military force demonstration options that could be executed quickly if North Korea embarks on a provocative missile launch or some type of weapons component test, according to a US official. Those options could include everything from flights of bomber planes over the Korean peninsula to quickly called military land weapon exercises. However, it is not known what the threshold of North Korea's action to generate a US response would be. North Korea has fired several short-range missiles in recent months without any US military response.
A key indication of how strong is the message that the United States wants to send would be how close to the United States it will place any of its forces in the demilitarized zone. The US official strongly emphasized that the current plan is to be just a demonstration of strength, without direct US military action against North Korea.
With information from Kevin Liptak
Kim Jong Un
