Interior ministry announces nationwide air-raid civil defense drill

The interior ministry said Wednesday that a nationwide civil defense drill will be held at 2 p.m. on Aug. 20, testing civilian evacuation and emergency-vehicle access during a simulated air raid.

The exercise will start with an air-raid siren. People are asked to move immediately to a nearby civil defense shelter or underground space. At 2:15 p.m., people may leave shelters and travel while maintaining vigilance. The all-clear at 2:20 p.m. will end the exercise.

Civil defense shelters include apartment basement car parks, subway stations and underground shopping centers. Their locations can be found through online portals and mapping services. Foreign nationals can use the Emergency Ready App for drill schedules and shelter information in 22 languages, including English, Chinese, Japanese and Vietnamese.

The drill will test emergency-vehicle access on 250 sections nationwide. On single-lane roads, drivers should stop at the right edge; on wider roads, they should leave a central passage.

Traffic will be restricted for five minutes from 2 p.m. on a stretch of Sejong-daero in Seoul. Lotte World Tower will stage a high-rise evacuation demonstration using evacuation elevators.

Hospitals, subways, railways, aircraft and ships will operate normally. "We ask for your active participation and cooperation so that the culture of making way for fire engines and ambulances can become established in daily life," said Kim Gwang-yong, head of the Ministry of the Interior and Safety's Disaster and Safety Management Headquarters.