A U.S. security expert has suggested that Washington’s recent withdrawal of Patriot missiles from Saudi Arabia is a move to prepare for growing threats from North Korea. 

Kirsten Fontenrose, director of the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative, made the argument in her recent contribution to The National Interest, a conservative U.S. international affairs magazine.

Earlier this month, the U.S. pulled two of its four Patriot batteries and some fighter jets out of Saudi Arabia, which foreign media outlets assessed was the result of eased U.S.-Iran tensions.

Fontenrose, who also served as Senior Director for Gulf Affairs at the National Security Council under the Trump administration, dismissed the speculation and said “everything is to do with North Korea” as well as China. 

She claimed threats from Pyongyang are increasing, pointing to nine missile launches the regime carried out in a month this spring. 

Fontenrose also cited recent analysis suggesting North Korea's missile test success rate improved by nearly 30 percent last year, as well as the reported existence of a large-sized missile assembly and storage facility in the North.