Maybe they did try to shoot it down and missed.
“Maybe they did try to shoot it down and missed.”
So here’s the response to North Korea:
“The next missile you send up the US is going to assume it has a warhead on it. We will shoot down the missile then launch one of our own. The ball Dennis Rodman gave you is now in your court.”
“In this particular case, they chose to fly it almost directly straight up, and then pretty much straight back down.” — from US comments on the missile. This could be why it was not shot down.