© James Hill for The New York TimesDmitri Verkhoved, a mathematician who was director of the technopark in Akademgorodok, a Russian town that is a Soviet-era sanctuary of scientific research.

AKADEMGORODOK, Russia - Dmitri Trubitsyn is a young physicist-entrepreneur with a patriotic reputation, seen in this part of Siberia as an exemplar of the talents, dedication and enterprise that President Vladimir V. Putin has hailed as vital for Russia's future economic health.

Yet Mr. Trubitsyn faces up to eight years in jail after a recent raid on his home and office here in Akademgorodok, a Soviet-era sanctuary of scientific research that was supposed to showcase how Mr. Putin's Russia can harness its abundance of talent to create a modern economy.

A court last Thursday extended Mr. Trubitsyn's house arrest until at least October, which bars him from leaving his apartment or communicating with anyone other than his immediate family.

......though the test launches of the Hwasong-14 missile represent an impressive technical achievement - all the more so because the missile is mobile and road launched - the missile appears to be still in its development stage, with its payload apparently small and with great uncertainty as to whether the North Koreans have miniaturised their nuclear warhead technology sufficiently to arm it. There is therefore still time before the missile enters service and does so in any quantity.

Beyond these questions there remains the overriding fact that even if North Korea does eventually field a number of operational missiles of this sort its nuclear capabilities will still be overwhelmingly dwarfed by those of the US, a fact which because of the immense industrial and technological disparity between the two powers will never change. What that means is that unless the entire North Korean leadership - including Kim Jong-un - are intent on a bizarre form of suicide, there is no possibility of North Korea launching nuclear armed Hwasong-14 missiles at the US except in self-defence.

The US can therefore afford to take these North Korean missile tests in its stride. By contrast threatening military action against North Korea - or worse still actually engaging in it - is the one thing that might actually provoke North Korea to strike against the US - or more realistically against one of the US's allies - of which in all other respects no risk exists.