South Korea holds first air raid drill in six years
Air-raid sirens blared across downtown Seoul on Wednesday as South Korea conducted a nationwide air defense drill, in response to the perceived threat of a North Korean missile strike.
As reported by Reuters, the test in the South Korean capital took place at 2pm local time, with community leaders in yellow “civil defense” jackets and hats asking people to vacate the streets for 15 minutes, before the alert was eased.
In addition, motorists in some 200 areas of the country were told to pull over to the side of the road, while shoppers in 500 supermarkets, movie theaters and other public areas were advised to evacuate, the South Korean interior ministry said.
However, multiple media outlets have reported that many pedestrians appeared to ignore requests to seek shelter and didn’t seem concerned about the emergency simulation, simply disregarding the sirens.
“People don't seem to care about it much. I don't believe there will be an actual war either," Na Eun, a 52-year-old architectural designer, told Reuters.
Meanwhile, those who did take part described shelters that were ill-equipped to handle large numbers of people, and poor preparation on the part of the authorities.
Kim Yu-jin, a 31-year-old service worker, told NK News that she found the whole experience “confounding” after security guards stopped her from entering a building designated on a government map as a shelter open to the public.
“Even the government officials I talked to were unaware of what’s a designated shelter or not. If this was a real emergency situation, it would have been a massive freakout and disaster,” she said.
The 20-minute drill was part of the four-day ‘Ulchi civil defense training,’ which coincides with the 11-day US-South Korean ‘Ulchi Freedom Shield’ exercise. North Korea has repeatedly criticized Seoul and Washington’s maneuvers as preparation for an “actual war to invade the North,” and has warned of a potential “outbreak of a thermonuclear war on the Korean Peninsula.”
