South Korean Government Gives Disaster Zone Status to Gyeongju
The ruling Saenuri Party agreed on Wednesday to designate Gyeongju as a special disaster zone following several earthquakes plus almost 400 weaker aftershocks felt in the city in two consecutive weeks, according to a report from the Korea Herald.
The decision was finalized after the presidential office, the Prime Minister, and the ruling Saenuri Party discussed measures in dealing with the series of earthquakes that have struck the southeastern part of the country.
The Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) is set to conduct a press briefing on the initial analysis of the country's natural disaster warning system and the causes of the series of earthquakes.
On Wednesday morning, Gyeongju was once again hit by a 3.5 magnitude quake. A report from the KMA stated that the seism was detected at around 11:53 in the morning and the epicenter was located at approximately 10 kilometers southwest of Gyeongju.
Fire departments in nearby cities of Daegu, Ulsan, and North Gyeongsang Province confirmed that they had got hundreds of emergency calls reporting tremors when the earthquake occurred. No major injuries, damages, or fatalities was reported.
Since the first tremor that happened on September 12, a total of 412 aftershocks were recorded as of Wednesday afternoon. Most of the aftershocks recorded a magnitude below 3 while two aftershocks posted a magnitude of 4 and 5.
An area can be designated as a special disaster zone once it received approval from the President following the damages of public facilities due to large-scale natural disasters or accidents. Once Gyeongju is declared as a special disaster zone, the city will get financial support from the government in order to restore the city and the residents will get tax benefits and cuts in utility bills.
Opposition parties, on the other hand, continue to criticize the government citing its inability to deal with earthquakes.
Rep. Park Sun Ja of the Saenuri Party said, "The most fundamental problem is that the public has fears about the government's handling of safety-related issues. The Interior Ministry and the Public Safety Ministry should have distributed manuals on how to respond to quakes and advertised them to the public, but nothing has been done. The public does not feel protected by the government."
