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Terrorism in South Korea

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 June 2012

Soon Joo Wang ,
Jin Tae Choi  and
Jeffrey Arnold
Soon Joo Wang*
Affiliation:
Department of Emergency Medicine, Hallym University Sacred Heart Hospital, Anyang, South Korea
Jin Tae Choi
Affiliation:
Korean Research Institute on Terrorism, Seoul, South Korea
Jeffrey Arnold
Affiliation:
Yale New Haven Center for Emergency and Terrorism Preparedness, New Haven, Connecticut, USA
*
Department of Emergency Medicine, Hallym University Sacred Heart Hospital, Anyang, Korea, E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

South Korea has experienced >30 suspected terrorism-related events since 1958, including attacks against South Korean citizens in foreign countries. The most common types of terrorism used have included bombings, shootings, hijackings, and kidnappings. Prior to 1990, North Korea was responsible for almost all terrorism-related events inside of South Korea, including multiple assassination attempts on its presidents, regular kidnappings of South Korean fisherman, and several high-profile bombings. Since 1990, most of the terrorist attacks against South Korean citizens have occurred abroad and have been related to the emerging worldwide pattern of terrorism by international terrorist organizations or deranged individuals.

The 1988 Seoul Olympic Games provided a major stimulus for South Korea to develop a national emergency response system for terrorism-related events based on the participation of multiple ministries. The 11 September 2001 World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks and the 2001 United States of America (US) anthrax letter attacks prompted South Korea to organize a new national system of emergency response for terrorism-related events. The system is based on five divisions for the response to specific types of terrorist events, involving conventional terrorism, bioterrorism, chemical terrorism, radiological terrorism, and cyber-terrorism. No terrorism-related events occurred during the 2002 World Cup and Asian Games held in South Korea. The emergency management of terrorism-related events in South Korea is adapting to the changing risk of terrorism in the new century.

Keywords

biochemical terrorismdisasterdisaster preparednessemergency medical systememergency responseKoreanuclear crisisterrorism
Type
Special Reports
Information
Prehospital and Disaster Medicine , Volume 18 , Special Issue 2: Terrorism-I: Country Reports , June 2003 , pp. 140 - 147
Copyright
Copyright © World Association for Disaster and Emergency Medicine 2003

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