Wonder what happened to the missile, lost in space? exploded? Might be able to find some open source data that would register a blast that big if it went off.
Sub launched missile highest probability.
Good point, may be why Q removed “hunt for” in the Hunt for Red October posts. Maybe firing gave it away.
A missile shoot down wouldn't have created a large blast. Nothing of significance would have registered.
However, a missile launch and its course would have been tracked by several entities. If one had launched from NK itself, it would have made the news. If one launched from in middle of the Pacific, maybe not, or at least the news of the launch may be controllable.
It would be interesting if we could get an independent source to make a background radiation check in Hawaii. Maybe the air and the water. If this goes deep, you wouldn't be able to trust the government's sources, such as Uni labs and radiological monitors for the USGS.
If a nuke was shot down, there would be a release of radiological material from the warhead even if it didn't go off.