Images of a map showing potential missile strikes in the United States taken in Kim Jong-un’s war room were released Friday by North Korea’s Rodong newspaper. According to the North Korea News’ website, the targets included Hawaii, San Diego, Washington, D.C. and Austin, Texas.
“He finally signed the plan on technical preparations of strategic rockets, ordering them to be on standby to fire so that they may strike any time the US mainland, its military bases in the operational theatres in the Pacific, including Hawaii and Guam, and those in South Korea,” the state-run KCNA news agency reported.
Even though government analysts concur that North Korea does not currently possess the means to carry out such an attack, it hasn’t stopped Austenites and others throughout the nation from coming up with creative reasons as to why Austin is on the dictator’s hit list.
“Kim Jong-un taking Austin’s plastic bag ban pretty hard. Why not just write a letter to the editor?” @omarg said on Twitter.
Austinites also got #whyaustin to trend on twitter.
“#whyaustin: Maybe #KimJongUn ‘s band wasn’t invited to play #SxSW. I know that would get to me but I wouldn’t nuke a city over it,” @Mcnudde said on twitter.
By late afternoon the City of Austin had a statement of sorts prepared. They tweeted a video, “Duck and Cover (1951) Bert The Turtle Civil Defense Film.”
The imaginative reasoning of Texans quickly gained the attention of the North Korea News agency that originally published the photos.
“It seems we have triggered #whyAustin? Twitter trend due to our article today. Note: We did not confirm that Austin was the precise target!” @nknewsorg tweeted.
Regardless if Austin is the intended target or not, Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell said the city is prepared:
“The city has been in contact with federal officials through the Austin Regional Intelligence Center (ARIC) regarding the North Korean threat to Austin. Austin’s Homeland Security and Emergency Management department and the Austin Police Department are monitoring the situation, and though they take this very seriously, they do not believe the threats are credible at this time.”