You might have heard that North Korea launched an intercontinental ballistic missile this week. Well, not in Russia! The Russian government is stubbornly insisting that the missile launched by North Korea on Tuesday morning was merely a medium-range ballistic missile, capable of traveling no more than a thousand kilometers or so.

That’s what the Russian mission to the United Nations Security Council said on Thursday, anyway.

All of this raises a disquieting thought: Did the Russians miss the launch? Maybe the Russians are just being stubborn, but is it possible that Russian radars and warning satellites are so lousy, they might not see a North Korean ICBM climbing to seven times the altitude …