Updated: 2024/12
South Korea has a Public Alert Service for notifying citizens of important information. The following blog post explores more about the system and offers support for dealing with the smartphone sounds and the language barrier.
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About Korean Disaster Alerts
In South Korea, the emergency alert system is known as the Korean Public Alert Service (KPAS), or 한국재난안전문자서비스. Social media or blog content creators may refer to KPAS as the disaster alert program, public alert system, emergency alert system, or some other variation on this theme.
Founded in 2005, the KPAS alerts Korean citizens and residents about disasters or emergencies across Korea or a specific area. The Korean Public Alert Service (KPAS) operates under the Ministry of Public Administration and Security. The alerts might include a missing person, earthquake, flood warnings, bridge closures, or heat advisory.
In fact, the authority to issue alerts is distributed among approximately 20 central government agencies and over 200 local governments. While each organization addresses specific types of emergencies, their alerts can sometimes overlap, especially when multiple agencies respond to the same incident within a jurisdiction. This means alerts seem to increase each year. On average, well of 900 alerts may occur on a smartphone in a year.
Additionally, the KPAS has evolveds significantly over time. The government implements changes that aim to enhance public safety and increase inclusivity. For example, after a large earthquake in 2016, the Korean government increased the use of the KPAS system to include more smartphone alerts. In 2019, South Korea introduced an emergency alert system using ATSC 3.0, enhancing the alerting process and offering backup to existing telecom networks.
Recognizing the growing international community, the Ministry of Interior and Safety introduced English keywords into emergency alerts in February 2024. This initiative aimed to help foreign residents and visitors quickly understand the nature of emergencies, such as earthquakes or heavy rain, and respond appropriately. Additionally, they launched the Emergency Readiness App which provides translated emergency information for international residents.
These developments reflect South Korea’s commitment to improving its emergency alert system, ensuring timely and comprehensible information reaches all residents and visitors, thereby enhancing public safety and preparedness. However, this commitment to safety doesn’t always feel comfortable.
The Reality of Living with the Disaster Alert System
It’s important to know that this public safety net comes with inconveniences you will need to manage. First, the heavy use of KPAS (over 900 per year) may cause your smartphone buzz or alert sound to go off often day or night. This may make it hard to sleep or interrupt important activities. You will need to know how to manage the sounds and buzzing.
Next, language also remains an issue even with the keywords added. Plus, the keywords aren’t in all languages. This means you may want to use the Emergency Ready App to get push notifications in your preferred language.
Let’s explore how to manage the sounds and the language barrier of the KPAS system.
Turning Off the Emergency Phone Alerts
At some point, while living in South Korea, you may want to turn off the KPAS alerts on your phone. Keep in mind, that turning off the alerts will limit your access to information regarding natural disasters and other safety and public health-related events.
Disclaimer: South of Seoul does not encourage residents of South Korea to turn off the KPAS on their phone without downloading the Emergency Ready App. A great deal of imports information regarding public health programs is delivered through this system. However, we believe everyone should be aware of how to manage any system.
Turning Off iPhone Alerts
If you have an iPhone you can follow the following steps to turn off both the Emergency Alerts and the Public Safety Alerts.
- Open the Settings – Open the Notifications – Scroll to the bottom- Korean Public Alert System
Turning Off Emergency Alerts for Android
Since we do not have Android phones, we will link to an article that explains how to manage alerts on Android devices.
Translating Korean Language Alerts to Foreign Languages
You can translate the Hangul emergency alerts using the following systems:
ChatGPT
If you aren’t using an AI program like ChatGPT to help with language and culture, you need to start. This is one of the best options for translating information and also asking about content.
Papago and Google Translate
These two translation apps are gold. If you don’t have them on your phone you are missing out on life. Everything gets easier once you download them from your favorite app store (go download them right now). Simply take a screenshot of the emergency message, upload that picture into either Papago or Google Translate and drag your finger across whatever you need to have translated. You can do this will menus, signs, emergency messages, and whatever else you fancy. We use these two apps constantly.
1330 Korea Travel Hotline
If you want to talk to a person about what the meaning of an alert on your phone, you can also call a person to ask for help. South Korea has an amazing hotline for helping English speakers (and speakers of many other languages). If you can’t understand what the alert message on your handphone means after translating or you can’t figure out how to use the translation apps, you can call a real person and ask for help. You simply call the very short number on your handphone.
Get Translated Alerts
If you don’t want to deal with Hangul (Korean language) alerts at all, you can download an app that delivers the South Korean Emergency Alerts in other languages and then disable the Hangul alerts.
Emergency Ready App
The Emergency Ready App has been expanded to provide alerts in multiple languages, including English, Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, and Thai, as of August 2024. This expansion ensures that a broader audience can access critical information during emergencies.
The first option is the Emergency Ready App (ERA). The ERA provides computer-generated translations of emergency messages sent out across Korea.
We recommend having this on your phone simply because it provides unique insight into the broader South Korean experience. You can see alerts across the country. This can come in handy when planning your trips around the country. Search for Emergency Ready App in your preferred app store.
Embassy Translations
Embassies from different countries may provide a database of alerts translated to their nation’s language. For example, the US Embassy provides English translations of South Korean public alerts online.
Articles About Emergency Alerts in Korea
We also recommend reading more about the history of emergency alerts in South Korea as they pertain to international residents.
- Emergency Alerts For Foreigners Get Lost In Translation
- Foreigners unable to read emergency text alerts from S. Korean government
- Emergency Alert Text Messages to be provided in English, Mandarin
Founded in 2015, the South of Seoul team consists of volunteers on three continents working together to support English-speaking people traveling or living in South Korea. South of Seoul volunteers work with organizations and individuals across South Korea to improve equitable access to information across South Korea. Much of South of Seoul’s information focuses on Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea.
Blogs published under the authorship of “South of Seoul” include blogs compiled by multiple volunteers to improve access to standardized information unrelated to individualized personal experiences.
