Seoul conducted a civil defense drill around 2 p.m. today. And, before anyone back home gets too alarmed, apparently it’s something they do quarterly and is not necessarily related to the events of the past week. Since we’re just entering our fourth month here, we were a little overdue for one.
It’s a good thing a coworker called me this morning about a work issue and happened to mention the drill in passing–it was scheduled to start around the time I come into the office–or the air raid sirens downtown might have freaked me out.
Of course, I hope I would have remained calm enough to notice that no one around me seemed the slightest bit concerned. I was the only one I saw who trotted off the street and into the underground shopping area around the subway station just to play along. (I have always followed instructions well.)
From what my coworker and others have told me, all traffic was supposed to be off the streets from 2 p.m. until 2:20 and all eletricity turned off. I think people are also supposed to be taking shelter during this time. But unless the civil defense instructions equate taking shelter with standing outside your office building and having a smoke, I don’t think this part of the drill was too successful.
I would feel really stupid about not knowing there was a drill coming up, if it weren’t for a lot of expats who’ve been here longer than we have and they didn’t know about it either. Although it was announced on Korean television and radio, notification didn’t seem to make it to the English-language media. I guess we’ll try not to read too much into that.
David, whose office is in the World Trade Tower, never heard about the drill either and says they didn’t hear sirens at all. Maybe the drill was just for the northern half of the city? I hope so, because leaving your financial center our of the civil defense plans doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence.
