South Korean Prime Minister on False Alarm of Security Alert: "Difficult to Judge if 'Security' is Excessive"

Korean Prime Minister on 31st Back Briefing: "Will Consider Institutional Improvements if Necessary"

Prime Minister Han Duck-soo stated on the morning of the 31st regarding the false alarm of the Seoul city warning alert about the North Korean projectile launch, "It is quite difficult to judge whether it was excessive or not," adding, "If institutional improvements are necessary, we will make them."

In response to questions about the false alarm text message sent that morning at the Government Seoul Office in the afternoon, Prime Minister Han said, "I think Seoul city judged, according to their internal regulations, that it would be better to quickly prepare and alert the public, so they acted accordingly."

He added, "From the public's perspective, it may seem 'somewhat excessive,' but it is quite difficult to judge whether it was excessive or not in terms of security. We will carefully review this process and make institutional improvements if necessary."

Prime Minister Han Duck-soo is attending the Government Policy Review Meeting held at the Government Seoul Office in Jongno-gu, Seoul on the 20th. Photo by Dong-joo Yoon doso7@

Regarding the results of the Fukushima inspection team, he added, "Our country is currently participating in the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) verification, and Japan has mostly responded positively to additional requests for data that we wanted to obtain."

Regarding the dismissal of Han Sang-hyuk, Chairman of the Korea Communications Commission, Prime Minister Han said, "I judged that it was impossible for him to perform his duties as chairman, so as the appointing authority, I recommended to the President and the final decision was made."

Prime Minister Han said, "Since I thought it was the right thing to do, I naturally signed the dismissal request documents from the Ministry of Personnel Management." Regarding the appointment of a successor to the Communications Commission chairman, he said, "It is not the stage to talk about that yet."

Regarding the Democratic Party of Korea's announcement to push for a parliamentary hearing and filing a case with the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea concerning the Fukushima nuclear wastewater inspection team report, he emphasized, "The basis of everything must be 'science.' Vague worries or ideological conflicts are problematic." He expressed concern, saying, "Continuously making people think there is a 'problem' without scientific basis is itself related to the ocean discharge of the contaminated water."