False North Korea missile launch

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On Tuesday, Jan. 16, Japanese public broadcaster NHK television issued a false alarm about a North Korean ballistic missile launch, just days after a similar false missile alarm terrorized residents of Hawaii for nearly 40 minutes.

NHK television issued the warning on Twitter, the NHK website and through a push notification to anybody who had the NHK app. Five minutes later NHK television realized that there was no missile threat and sent their users a second notification to correct their mistake and inform them that there was no imminent danger. The authorities were trying to figure out what triggered the mistake.

North Korean President Kim Jong Un’s regime has test fired a number of missiles over Japan in recent months and has threatened to bomb Guam, a United States territory in the Pacific Ocean. Un and President Donald Trump have engaged in a war of words over Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions, with Trump making fun of Un, referring to him as “Little Rocket Man” and saying that he has a bigger and more powerful “nuclear button.”

Hawaii dealt with the same problem. On Saturday, Jan. 13, an emergency alert was sent by the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency that warned of a ballistic missile threat inbound to Hawaii. The alert urged people to immediately seek shelter, saying the message was not a test. Hotel workers sent guests into basements and people fled, struggling to find places to take shelter. The alert was discovered as a mistake within 20 minutes. However, it took about 38 minutes for officials to send a correction.

The state’s governor David Ige said the false alarm was sent out during an employee shift change. He added that there was no automated process to let people know that the warning was false. The governor apologized and said officials were taking steps to ensure that such a false alarm does not happen again.

Hawaii is home to the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Command and its Pacific Fleet. In December, the state restarted its monthly tests of a warning siren system to warn residents of any coming nuclear attack.