Owners of houses and stores could face fines up to one million won in the near future for failing to clear snow from around their properties.

Park Yeon-soo, an administrator at the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), said Thursday, "A revision to the current law will be made in order to empower local governments to impose fines for the failure to clear heavy snow when it falls."

Park said that the change will be finalized by June through consultations with relevant ministries and agencies with its passage by the National Assembly expected this year. Local entities will likely be able to introduce snow-clearing decrees from next winter.

The initiative comes after the nation had the heaviest snowfall in a century this week. The central and local governments mobilized all their manpower and equipment to clear the snow but were overwhelmed.

NEMA now believes that it is pivotal for citizens to participate in removing snow in the future.

Also, there have been some reports of disputes between neighbors over who should be responsible.

Park said that his agency plans to create a new manual for heavy snow and other natural disasters.

In the event of natural disasters, the new manual will see to it that subway and bus services will be beefed up during rush hours, including extended operating hours, and restrictions on taxi service schedules will be lifted.

The agency will likely be empowered to ask government offices, schools and companies to reset their hours of operation to minimize traffic congestion during floods or heavy snowfall.

"We are taking the latest heavy snow-caused troubles as an opportunity to improve our disaster-handling capabilities," Park said.

foolsdie@koreatimes.co.kr