"American bastards would be not very happy with this gift sent on the July 4 anniversary," said North Korean leader Kim Jong Un about his country's first successful test of an intercontinental ballistic missile on Wednesday. And indeed Americans are not happy about it, although it would be overstating the case to say that panic is sweeping the United States at the news that North Korea's ICBMs can now reach America.

One reason for the lack of public panic is that Alaska is not a central concern for most Americans, and Alaska is the only part of the U.S. that North Korea's Hwasong-14 missile can actually reach.

Another reason is that the U.S. authorities insist that North Korea's nuclear weapons are too big and heavy to fit on its ICBMs. (It's not clear whether they have actual intelligence that confirms this, or are just whistling in the dark.)