Ministry of the Interior and Safety "Civil Defense Drill at 2 PM on the 23rd"

The Ministry of the Interior and Safety announced on the 17th that a nationwide civil defense drill for air raid preparedness will be conducted simultaneously for 20 minutes starting at 2:00 PM on the 23rd. The air raid civil defense drill is held to practice quick evacuation and response procedures in case of an air raid situation such as North Korea's missile provocations.

Kim Seong-ho, Director of the Disaster and Safety Management Headquarters at the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, is briefing on the "National Air Raid Civil Defense Drill" on the morning of the 17th at the briefing room of the Government Seoul Office Annex on Sejong-daero, Jongno-gu, Seoul. Photo by Yonhap News

When the drill air raid alarm is issued exactly at 2:00 PM, citizens must immediately evacuate to the nearest civil defense shelter, and if there is no shelter nearby, they should evacuate to a safe underground space.

When the drill alert alarm is issued at 2:15 PM, citizens may leave the shelter and maintain a state of alert while allowing passage, and when the alarm is lifted at 2:20 PM, they can return to their daily routines.

When the drill air raid alarm is issued, traffic signals in the drill area will operate with red flashing lights, and traffic will be controlled. Vehicles traveling in the controlled area must stop on the right side of the road and listen to the radio inside the vehicle, following the instructions of the announcements. Additionally, alongside the emergency lane vehicle movement control drill, actual emergency vehicle operation training will be conducted on major roads nationwide.

To minimize inconvenience and burden on citizens, hospitals, subways, railways, airplanes, and ships will be allowed to operate normally. Furthermore, this drill will include special training tailored to the characteristics of border areas, the West Sea 5 islands, and Yeongjongdo residents.

Also, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety has established a special cooperation system with multi-use facilities, which had low participation rates in the past, to enable employees and customers of these facilities to actively participate in the drill. To ensure orderly training, public officials and civil defense captains will be stationed at civil defense shelters nationwide on the day of the drill to guide the training.

However, 57 regions nationwide are excluded from this drill. These include 13 regions such as Sejong, Chungbuk, and Jeonbuk, which suffered heavy rain damage, and 34 regions including Gangwon, Jeonnam, and Chungnam, which were declared special disaster areas due to Typhoon Khanun.

The Ministry of the Interior and Safety plans to notify the public about the drill via disaster text messages on August 18 and 22 before the drill, and on the 23rd, the day of the drill. Especially on the day of the drill, announcements will be made three times according to the alarm stages (air raid, alert, and cancellation) to minimize public confusion.

Kim Seong-ho, Director of the Disaster and Safety Management Headquarters, emphasized, “Civil defense drills are the most basic training necessary for citizens to protect themselves and their precious families in preparation for emergencies," and “we ask all citizens to take an interest in the drill and actively participate.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.