wwwh3596 - Embassy of the United States Seoul, Korea
An Emergency Evacuation Plan - Do You Have One?
For non-Pyongyang watchers back at home, you may not have noticed the increasing tension between the South and the North as the North refuses to admit culpability in the recent sinking of the Cheonan warship, even though a multinational panel has found that the North was almost certainly responsible.
President Lee Myung Bak, more of a hardliner to the North than some of his predecessors (Kim Dae Jung comes to mind), has cut off all supply and aid to North Korea, which is increasing tensions. (More selfishly for me, it’s also caused the won to plummet in the world market, effectively reducing my salary by about 15% in just a week.)
Now, a salary decrease and increasing tension is no fun - but is the North actually a danger?
I’ve already written about my personal belief, as a dilettante of the Kim personality cult, that Kim Jong Il’s histrionics are, once again, sound and fury signifying nothing. It is in my (limited) experience so far in South Korea that foreigners are much more terrified by the prospect of a Nork attack than South Koreans are - South Koreans are used to his grandstanding, so it would take a lot more to rile them.
Yet an ex with less of a laissez-faire attitude than mine has urged me to be prepared, and I figure it’s better to be safe than sorry.
According to the U.S. Embassy’s website, there are six emergency evacuation spots (pictured above) that any U.S. citizen working in Korea can travel to in the event of an evacuation. Here are 4 ground rules (also lifted from the Embassy’s website):Standfast, Assemble, Relocate, and Evacuate. (You can read more here.)
According to the literature on their website, the most important thing is to keep your documentation on your person or ready-to-go at all times - passport and alien registration card - and to also assemble some emergency supplies at home.
I’m personally going to also make copies of my documentation and keep them in a separate place, just in case. I know that copies of essential documents are not the Real Thing, but it’s still a safe precaution, I think. Additionally, I’m figuring out the bus routes to the Kunsan military base just in case there are no friendly Koreans around to translate as the sky is falling.
if you haven’t, it’s probably also a good idea to update your emergency contact information with the Embassy, which you can do on their website.
How do you feel about the increasing tension between North and South? Once again, I doubt much will happen - although I’m certainly a Pyongyang-information acolyte - but it’s best to be prepared, no?
Good read. For all Americans living in S Korea
Hopefully someone close to me will take care of this for me.
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