Amongst the merriment and firecrackers that marked this year’s Independence Day was a fissure of concern following remarks made by North Korea’s government that it would fire a missile at the state of Hawaii on July 4.

For those native islanders who have relocated to West Virginia, and those West Virginians with loved ones in the island chain, the news was particularly sobering.

Lipas Kahea Hicks, a St. Albans resident and employee at the Toyota plant at Buffalo, has family members who reside on the island of Oahu. She learned of North Korea’s announcement to bomb her island home with the rest of the nation last week.

“I don’t know what was going on in Hawaii. I know some people were trying to leave. My initial reaction was one of panic,” she shared.

Hicks says North Korea’s announcement reminded her of a time in history when the United States was given a similar warning that Hawaii would come under attack.

“I remember thinking, please don’t let this be another Pearl Harbor, where warnings were sent to our government and nobody listened to it and then it was too late. And that’s what I don’t want repeated,” she said.

Hicks, who served in the United States Navy and went to school in Hawaii, remembers all too well the lessons of Pearl Harbor.

“You would hope that those who have the capabilities to intercept messages like that will be persistent enough to get it to the right people and not just second-guess it, or think it’s a drill or a bluff. We can’t do that nowadays. Even with a bluff, you have to be prepared,” she said.

“Living on an island, unless you owned a boat, you really needed to know where to go. And even if you did own a boat, you needed to know where to go — the depth and damage that a missile can do is catastrophic,” she said.

Then, when North Korea proceeded to launch seven ballistic missiles, albeit short-range, Hicks says watching the events unfold was emotional.

“I was kind of stunned. It just really felt surreal; kind of like when 9/11 was happening right before our eyes and I think there was also a bit of panic, coupled with helplessness, being this far away,” she said.

The White House’s response this past weekend was to ignore, in large part, the announcement of North Korean aggression. Vice President Joe Biden described the test-fire “attention-seeking behavior” and said he did not want to give the event attention.

The Department of Defense has reported that the ballistic missiles that North Korea test-fired this weekend were likely capable of

striking government and military facilities in South Korea, but were not anywhere close to reaching Hawaii.

South and North Korea, which fought a 1950-53 war, have not forgotten events that occurred more than 56 years ago.

Today, the two nations are divided by what military officials describe as the “world's most heavily fortified border.” The U.S. has 28,500 troops stationed in South Korea.

Sometimes called the “Forgotten War” of the “Unknown War,” the U.S. lost approximately 66,117 service members, including those missing in action, while another 103,248 were wounded during the Korean War, according to the national archives database.

According to the Korean War Project, 869 of those deaths were service members from West Virginia. The war began on June 25, 1950.

According to reports in the newspaper Le Monde, on Aug. 12, 1950, the U.S. Air Force dropped 625 tons of bombs on North Korea. Two weeks later, the daily load amounted to about 800 tons.

There has been no official end to the war, although a cease-fire and armistice was signed on July 27, 1953.

In May of this year, AFP journalist Simon Martin reported that North Korea was abandoning the truce that ended the Korean War and warned it could launch a military attack on South Korea.