The 2018 Hawaii false missile alert reaffirms the need for nuclear risk reduction.
January 13th, 2018 started out like any other Saturday in Hawaii before it took a dramatic turn. At 8:07 AM, the Hawaii emergency management agency broadcast an official message to more than one million people: “Ballistic missile threat inbound to Hawaii seek immediate shelter. This is not a drill.”
It was a false alarm, as it turned out caused by human error. But residents wouldn’t know that for another thirty-eight minutes. Given the geopolitical tensions between North Korea and the United States at the time, the threat seemed plausible.