Japanese Public Broadcaster NHK Issues False Alarm Over North Korean Missile Launch

It’s deja vu, all over again.

Just four days after residents of Hawaii lived through 38 minutes of doomsday hell, after a false public broadcast alarm announced that a ballistic missile launch was headed for the island, only to reverse and announce later it was a mistake, moments ago Japan’s National broadcaster NHK’s app issued a false J-Alert to phones over a North Korean missile launch at 6:55 p.m. Tuesday evening local time.

The message, received by phone users with the NHK app installed on their devices, read: “NHK news alert. North Korea likely to have launched missile. The government J alert: evacuate inside the building or underground. “

#BREAKING: Japan’s national broadcaster NHK just sent a text alert reporting that North Korea launched another missile … and then corrected itself pic.twitter.com/5Cyreba8rg

— Amichai Stein (@AmichaiStein1) January 16, 2018

NHK accidentally sends missile alert, similar to that of Hawaii from a couple days ago… uhhhh…. pic.twitter.com/fThV3Ed5en

— Shoko Oda (@shoko_oda) January 16, 2018

It then promptly corrected the error just 5 minutes later, at around 7 p.m.

After the false alert, NHK issued an on-air apology on Tuesday evening local time, saying “the news alert sent earlier about NK missile was a mistake. No government J alert was issued.”

“Around 6:55pm earlier we reported on the NHK’s news site and NHK’s news disaster prevention application ‘Pattern of North Korean missile launch’ but this was incorrectly issued. J alert has not appeared. I must sincerely apologize,” the news outlet wrote.

JUST IN: Japanese broadcaster NHK has “deeply apologized” after accidentally sending a news alert to their website and app saying that “North Korea appears to have fired a missile”. The correction was issued five minutes after the initial report. #japan #missilealert pic.twitter.com/BNlhiLe0Hp

— Heidi Voight (@HeidiVoight) January 16, 2018

「北朝鮮ミサイル発射の模様」という速報は誤り #nhk_news https://t.co/GOu9FR8fTt

— NHKニュース (@nhk_news) January 16, 2018

The bizarre coincidence of two false alarms announcing the start of nuclear war is certainly suspicious.

The false alert came on the same day as the US and Canada planned to host talks in Vancouver over the crisis on the Korean Peninsula after a year of missile tests and threats from the North.

As a reminder, on Saturday, an emergency alert notification sent out to residents of Hawaii warning of an incoming “ballistic missile threat” turned out to be a false alarm. The error was blamed on an employee who “pushed the wrong button.” “BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL,” the emergency alert read.

The warning went out on television and radio as well as cell phones, according to Hawaii Gov. David Ige, sparking panic amongst some residents. A second emergency alert was sent to phones in Hawaii 38 minutes after the initial message confirming the false alarm.