Hawaii left reeling after missile threat false alarm
'The Greg Gutfeld Show' panel shares their reaction.
North Korea mocked the United States on Tuesday for a recent mistaken alert that sent Hawaii residents into a panic, with the Hermit Kingdom boasting the regime's intercontinental ballistic missiles have left Americans "trembling with fear."
In one of its typically bombastic statements, the state-run Korean Central News Agency scoffed at the U.S. for the Jan. 13 alert Hawaii’s Emergency Management Agency accidentally sent out to residents stating a ballistic missile was heading to the island.
![hawaii alert screenshot](https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2018/09/1200/675/ap18013681500761.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
The alert sent on Jan. 13 caused mass panic among Hawaii citizens.
"The U.S.…is now on jitters, being seized by 'fear of the north's missiles.' A ballistic missile threat warning was released throughout Hawaii, U.S. by a mistake recently,” Tuesday's statement said. "It is none other than the U.S. which is trembling with fear, stricken by extreme horror and pressure even by a single message and by a flash in the sky."
JAPAN BROADCASTER ALERTS NORTH KOREA MISSILE LAUNCH THAT DIDN'T HAPPEN
North Korea warned about a “higher level of disaster” that would be inflicted on Americans if U.S. officials engaged in further confrontation with Kim Jong Un’s regime.
"The mindset of the panic-stricken Americans is that the higher the level of confrontation with the DPRK, the world-level nuclear power and a rocket power, the higher the level of disaster to be inflicted upon them," the statement said.
People in Hawaii received an alert at 8:07 a.m. on Jan. 13 that read: “BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.”
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North Korea's November missile launch was "significantly more" powerful than its last ICBM. (KCNA via Reuters)
Officials tweeted nearly 20 minutes later that the message was a mistake, but a follow-up alert wasn’t sent for nearly 40 minutes. Hawaii Gov. David Ige vehemently apologized for the false alarm and revealed Monday he and his team took so long to post a message on Twitter because he forgot his username and password.
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But within days of the Hawaii mistake, Japanese broadcaster NHK also issued an alert saying “North Korea appears to have fired a missile” — when no launch occurred in the region.
“This happened because equipment to send a news flash onto the Internet had been incorrectly operated. We are deeply sorry,” an NHK announcer said on its news program.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.