'Don't disrupt minister's sleep if a quake occurs deep at night,' advises crisis manual

“Don’t disrupt sleeping of (environment) minister and vice minister in the event of an earthquake deep at night. Report it early next morning if possible.” / Korea Times photo by Lee Jin-a

By Lee Han-soo, Park Si-soo

Amid rising fears of earthquakes, ridiculous and unreasonable response guidelines in state crisis manuals have stirred controversy, reflecting the government’s systematic unpreparedness for major natural disasters that have not hit the Korean Peninsula for many years.

The guidelines include this advice: “Don’t disrupt sleeping of (environment) minister and vice minister if a quake occurs deep at night. Report it early next morning if possible.”

The 108-page manual, obtained by The Korea Times, was written by the Korea Meteorological Administration. The environment ministry is above the weather agency in the government’s chain of command.

Another manual, written by the health and welfare ministry, includes this advice: “Find cases including a moving human story that would give people the impression that the government is doing a good job in responding to natural disasters.”

The spotlight fell on the manuals after powerful quakes in southeastern parts of the country in recent weeks, causing people to abandon the long-held belief that the peninsula is free from earthquakes.

Meanwhile, President Park Geun-hye has expressed her strong commitment to revamping state response manuals on natural disasters.

During a meeting with her senior secretaries on Thursday, Park said: “It was confirmed that the country is not free from earthquakes and there were many loopholes in our response manuals.”

She said the government will do “everything it can to plug loopholes found in the natural disaster response system.”