Kim Jong-un, the bumptious supreme ruler of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, had a surprise present for the United States on Independence Day a month ago: he presided over the successful launch of an inter­continental ballistic missile. Luckily it was not gift-wrapped with a nuclear warhead, nor was it hand-delivered to the US. The flight suggested that North Korea had mastered the technology to be able to reach Alaska with a missile. North Korea’s state news agency quoted Kim saying the missile was a “gift ­bundle” for the “American bastards”. Last week, he fired a second ICBM.