The Ministry of the Interior and Safety announced on the 17th that it has issued a 'serious' crisis alert for natural disasters and activated the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters at stage 3.
The Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters' emergency stage 3 is the highest response level among stages 1 to 3. The natural disaster crisis alert is also the highest among the four levels: attention, caution, alert, and serious. A serious alert is issued when large-scale damage occurs nationwide or in certain regions.
On that day, the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters held a meeting presided over by Vice Minister Kim Min-jae. Vice Minister Kim said, 'We will activate a government-wide emergency response system to respond to the nationwide heavy rainfall,' and 'We will raise the emergency response posture to the highest level by increasing personnel at the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters and supporting police force and equipment, as well as expanding the disaster situation rooms of each ministry.'
The Ministry of the Interior and Safety will dispatch field situation management officers at the national and departmental levels to local governments across the country to strengthen the organic cooperation system between the central and local governments. It also plans to coordinate on-site to enable real-time joint responses.
Additionally, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety has actively encouraged local leaders to exercise their authority to issue evacuation orders in areas that have already received a lot of rain, and it stated that the central government would support the expenses related to evacuation and protection.