Disaster Planning in Korea

Abstract

In response to modern events, every nation endeavors to develop plans to meet the challenges of disasters, but it is not possible to be prepared for every event and the ability to respond adequately is often limited. In the Republic of Korea, national disaster response efforts are defined by the Korea Basic Law for Disaster and Safety Management of 2004 and the establishment of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) provides a framework for a holistic disaster prevention and recovery plan. However, the tragedy involving the sinking of the Sewol ferry in 2014 revealed a number of flaws in the current Korean disaster response system. In response to the shortcomings demonstrated in the Sewol incident, both NEMA and the Korean Coast Guard dissolved and the Korean disaster response system is being revised under the creation of the new Ministry of Public Safety and Security. However, the current national disaster management system still has many significant underlying and systematic problems that must be addressed. First, there is confusion concerning the responsible governmental organizations that will handle the various aspects of a comprehensive disaster management plan. Second, the relationships between the laws and government organizations involving planning, managing and reporting are in a vertical relationship, while the entities responsible for the actual response efforts exist in a horizontal relationship. This organizational limitation results in a slowdown of communication and confusion between the responsible parties. Thirdly, and consequently, there is a significant lack of unity and organization between the many organization responsible for disaster response. Finally, an efficient, accurate database of resources available to meet disasters remains to be developed. These and other limitations reveal that there is a significant amount of work that remains in order for Korea to have the same level of disaster response system of other developed nations.