TOKYO: Japan’s public broadcaster on Tuesday mistakenly flashed that NorthKorea appeared to have launched a missile, warning people to take coverbefore apologising for the error only minutes later.
A news alert saying: “It appears North Korea launched a missile… ‘Evacuateinside buildings or underground’: government” was published by the NHKwebsite and app at 6:55 pm local time (0955 GMT).
But after just five minutes, NHK admitted the alert was sent in error.
“We’re very sorry,” NHK said on its website, without explaining further.
It comes just days after a false cellphone alert warning of an incomingballistic missile terrified residents in Hawaii.
Japan and North Korea have a tense relationship, with Pyongyang routinelyissuing verbal threats as well as firing missiles near or above Japan.
“Don’t scare me. It’s good that (North Korea) didn’t launch a missile,” oneJapanese Twitter user said.
“I was surprised but it was a mistake. Do your work, NHK!” urged another.
The mistake also comes less than two weeks after a fake earthquake alarm inTokyo, where millions of residents received an alert warning them that astrong quake was about to hit the Japanese capital.
In Hawaii, the notification was sent out on Saturday, lighting up phoneswith a disturbing alert urging people to “seek immediate shelter.”
Emergency management officials later admitted “the wrong button was pushed”during a shift change.
But it took nearly 40 minutes for a corrected message to be issued — withHawaii’s governor saying there was no automatic way to cancel the falsealarm, meaning it had to be done manually.