2023-05-31 19:37:25
The alert was issued by the metropolitan government at 6:41 a.m. local time (5:41 p.m. on Tuesday in Chile) on mobile phones that were in the capital at that time and through the public address system installed in all the neighborhoods of seoulawakening and generating confusion and concern in many of its 9.4 million inhabitants.
“It is advisable to prepare for the evacuation giving priority to children, the elderly and the sick”prayed the alert.
Many South Korean citizens went to the internet and social networks in search of information, which caused the temporary downtime of the mobile version of Naverthe largest internet portal in South Korea, or the websites of various media.
It took 20 minutes until the Ministry of the Interior sent a message to the phones stating that “The alert notice issued by the Seoul Metropolitan City at 6:41 a.m. was a mistaken broadcast.”
Criticism has focused on the late delivery (the message was broadcast nine minutes late) and the wrong warning, as the space rocket flew more than 200 kilometers west of Seoul before crashing in the Yellow Sea.
In turn, in places like Incheon, Gimpo or Goyangclosest to its trajectory, alerts were not activated.
They have also rained criticism for the fact that neither the first nor the second alert message specified at any time what the emergency was responding to.
It wasn’t until 40 minutes following the original alert that the Seoul government decided to send another notice to phones stating that the alerts were due. “to the launch of a North Korean missile” and urging citizens to resume their “daily life.”
The Seoul city council defended itself by saying it sent out the alert following receiving a notification from the Interior Ministry regarding the launch of the space rocket.
An official from the aforementioned portfolio later said in statements to the yonhap agency that Seoul was not one of the areas designated to activate the alert, which was done on border islands such as Baengnyeong y Daecheongin the Yellow Sea, since the North Korean rocket flew near them.
Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon apologized for “creating confusion” but insisted that issuing the alert was not wrong.
“The alert was issued following determining that immediate action was necessary as North Korea fired (a projectile) this time in a southerly direction,” said Oh, who said the city’s commitment to security is to “respond in a way that can be seen as excessive”.
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