Page 2 - INHA SQUARE 2016

2 INHA SQUARE
COVER STORY
IS KOREA SAFE?
“Is the Ministry of Public Safety and Security, which is taking
charge of people’s safety, being operated well?”
The Ministry of Public Safety and Security is a recently
born central administrative agency, founded on Novermber
19th, 2014. Following the National Government Organization
Act, which was revised due to the sinkage accident of Sewol
ferry, the workforce and duty of the Ministry of Security and
Public Administration's safety office and the Vessel Traffic
Service Center was transferred to it. By unifying National
Emergency Management and Korea Coast Guard into this
department, it was established as a Cabinet ministerial level
government department. The minister of this government
department is Park Inyeong, and the vice-minister is Lee
Sungho. The main number is 044-200-2114. (Nighttime:
044-205-1600)
The Ministry of Public Safety and Security
established a safety innovation master plan. By
discussing disaster safety budget in advance,
it reinforced national disaster management
handling abilities. To construct quick response
system, it developed and disseminated a disaster
response standard model, and also expanded
HI-OVIS(Highly Interactive Optical Visual
Information System) from 4 organs 9129 machines
to 11 organs 21831 machines.
In addition, it is managing 'Safety Shinmoongo'
app, revealed national local security index, and
carrying out safety checkups on about 1.07
Reporter: Kim Seontae, Kim Daehan, Lee Jinyong
million facilities nationwide. To reinforce accident
preparation arrangements, it enlarged special rescue
teams and integrated emergency phone numbers into
three(112, 119, 110). Moreover, to collaborate between
centeral and regional areas, it reinforced disaster
safety managing organizations and 555 disaster safety
managing employees. And to build public cooperation
system, it composed citizen participating education
trainings and a disaster safety network consisting of
citizens, companies, and NGOs.
But the Ministry of Public Safety and Security,
despite having done so many efforts, actually doesn't
seem to have fulfilled its purpose of establishment.
When an earthquake of magnitude 5.1 and 5.3
occurred recently in Kyeongju on September 12th,
2016, the Ministry of Public Safety and Security's
server was paralyzed so it couldn't function properly
for more than 3 hours, which led to receiving much rebukes
from citizens.
Also, the Ministry of Public Safety and Security couldn't
function its original purpose, which is laying out an overall
quick disaster safety response and controlling system.
Because of its unnecessary procedures, Ministry of Public
Safety and Security sent emergency disaster texts 8 to 17
minutes later after the earthquake happened in Kyeongju.
It's a really slow response compared to Japan, which sends
emergency disaster texts in a minute when an earthquake
occurs.