In January, in his New Year speech, North Korea’s Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un said that in the near future his country would develop an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of hitting the U.S. The recently elected President Donald Trump reacted in a no-nonsense way, tweeting that such a launch “won’t happen.”

One cannot help but wonder why Donald Trump made such a statement about an event which, as nearly every Korea or missile specialist knew, was bound to happen sometime soon. Perhaps he was still fresh from an electoral campaign and wanted to look as tough as possible – or