Experts: NKorea missile strike on Hawaii still highly unlikely

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - As the U.S. Secretary of State pushes for diplomacy, experts say a North Korean missile strike on Hawaii is still highly unlikely.

CNN reported in 2017, North Korea fired 23 missiles during 16 tests.

It's most recent one in November flew higher and farther than the others, but a leading analyst at the East West Center says North Korea still hasn't perfected accuracy.

"Up until now, we can tell by the test results of what they've done, that today there is no risk of North Korea hitting Hawaii with a nuclear missile," said Denny Roy.

Roy believes it's too big of a risk for Kim Jong-Un to attack the U.S. because our country's military power outmatches North Korea.

"It would quickly lead to the destruction of the world for the North Korean leaders," said Roy. "Their regime and their personal, physical safety would be lost."

Experts agree the risk of North Korea launching an attack is very low, but that's not good enough for the U.S. and other world powers.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Tuesday that Kim Jong-Un must give up his weapons.

"We will not accept a nuclear armed North Korea," said Tillerson. "We have to recognize that that threat is growing and if North Korea is not does not choose the pathway of engagement, discussion and negotiation, then they themselves will trigger an option."

Some of those options involve preemptive military attacks, but analysts have repeatedly said millions of people would die in North and South Korea.

Back in Hawaii, emergency planners say our only option is to be prepared, just in case, which makes Saturday's missile alert mistake a valuable learning experience.

"There are a lot of lessons that the University's going to learn from what happened on Saturday and we're going to address them," said Dan Meisenzahl, University of Hawaii spokesperson. "One of those things is to identify spaces in buildings where people can take shelter in these types of events."

On Tuesday, North Korea commented on the missile alert mistake. The New York Times reported that the North's state-run newspaper called the false alarm a "tragic comedy."

Copyright 2018 Hawaii News Now. All rights reserved.