New Zealanders Think They're Out Of North Korea's Blast Radius And They're Celebrating With A Meme

    Being outside of a missile blast radius is lit, fam.

    Brad Esposito
    by Brad Esposito

    BuzzFeed News Reporter, Australia

    Lately, North Korea has been in the news – and a lot of that news has revolved around the communist nation's missile program.

    Ed Jones / AFP / Getty Images

    In March North Korea launched several missiles that landed in the Sea of Japan. The move prompted the US to deploy a missile defence system to South Korea.

    In early April North Korea attempted to launch another missile towards Japan, however this one exploded after about 60km, also landing in the Sea of Japan, according to South Korea's defence ministry.

    In late April North Korea's foreign ministry issued a statement warning Australia over its allegiance to the US.

    "If Australia persists in following the United States' moves to isolate and stifle [North Korea] and remains a shock brigade of the US master, this will be a suicidal act of coming within range of the nuclear strike of the strategic force of [North Korea]," it read.

    United States president Donald Trump, meanwhile, has labelled North Korean leader Kim Jong-un a "smart cookie" and said he would be honoured to meet with him.

    All of this has, rather understandably, been a bit scary for some.

    ♡ @undercoversivan

    holy shit why is no one else freaking out about the fact north korea is literally preparing for war im terrified

    Reply Retweet Favorite

    However, one nation believes itself to be immune from North Korean missiles. That nation is New Zealand – and it's celebrating its apparent safety with memes.

    View this post on Facebook
    Facebook: ilovenewzealand

    This meme shows a map of North Korea's purported missile range. Europe's in it. Asia's in it. Hell, Australia's in it. But New Zealand remains outside the radius.

    Facebook: ilovenewzealand

    It's already gone viral on Reddit, featuring on the front page twice in the last few days. A Facebook page with nearly 500,000 likes, I love New Zealand, also posted the meme and it has over a thousand shares.

    So, is New Zealand actually outside of North Korea's missile radius? From the look of things, they're pretty safe.

    Center For Stategic & International Studies / Via missilethreat.csis.org

    According to Missile Threat, a microsite set up by the Missile Defense Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington D.C, New Zealand is well and truly out of range – unless North Korea plans to launch a big-ass Taepodong-2. This missile takes days to prepare for launch and must be exposed on a launch pad for the whole time. The CSIS says it's less suitable for military operations.

    According to the BBC neither of North Korea's long range missiles have been flight tested.

    Meanwhile, inside-the-radius Australians are making their own plans.

    reddit.com / Via reddit.com
    Reddit.com / Via reddit.com

    For the time being, New Zealanders are pretty much free to meme in peace. But maybe just consider this:

    Facebook.com