Emergency Management in Korea and Its Future Directions

Abstract

Since South Korea has historically experienced a great number of natural hazards, the emergency management system has traditionally focused on natural hazards. However, as several large‐scale man‐made and/or technological disasters have occurred in South Korea in the 1990s, major changes have taken place in Korea`s emergency management systems. Accordingly, this paper examines the emergency management system in South Korea in terms of structural dimensions for emergency management along with the types of disasters. Discussions on theoretical issues of crisis and emergency management are included, but most of this paper is devoted to an overview of Korean emergency management systems as recent responses to disaster. Korea has had to learn the hard way. The Disaster Management Act was established after Korea experienced serious disasters in the mid 1990s. Korea`s emergency management system is still evolving. This paper concludes that emergency management organizations should have coordinating power for a unified response to a crisis as quickly as possible and that the emergency management system in Korea should be equipped with mitigation and preparedness strategies.