John Kirby: False Alarm in Hawaii Shows NKorea a Credible Threat

The false alarm about a nuclear attack in Hawaii on Sunday showed that North Korea poses a credible nuclear threat, said CNN National Security Analyst John Kirby.

Tensions with North Korea led Hawaii to test its systems, Kirby said, also noting the importance of President Donald Trump's administration in ramping up pressure on North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's regime. "It's work at which we all desperately need them to succeed," he wrote in his opinion piece for CNN.

A state employee accidentally caused the panic Saturday for 38 minutes, when the Hawaii State Emergency Management Agency sent out a false security alert.

Statewide alert systems must be better coordinated with the military and intelligence community, Kirby wrote. The US Pacific Command was able to refute the false alarm within minutes, but Kirby said a re-evaluation would be vital.

"It couldn't hurt to take another look at the lash-up with federal authorities to see if there is anything more that can be done to validate the flow of basic information."

The false alarm also should raise concerns about the reactions from U.S. enemies, Kirby wrote. "It is fair to ask whether Kim Jong Un might see the panic caused by Saturday's alert as some sort of deliberate pretext by the United States of launching a pre-emptive strike couched as something retaliatory."

North Korea did not react to the false alarm, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told NBC News Monday.

The Federal Communications Commission will be involved in the review of the alarm. "Here's hoping Hawaiian officials take full advantage of that assistance, that they hold themselves to full account, and that every other official of every other state uses this horrible mistake to do some introspection of their own," Kirby wrote.

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