North Koreas satellite launch failed. It still triggered fear and confusion
READ MORE: North Korea fails to launch rocket containing the countrys first military spy satellite
About 14 minutes after the launch at 6:27 a.m., authorities in Seoul, South Koreas capital, sent text messages to all mobile phones in the city urging people to prepare to move to safer places, without explaining the reason. In some areas, the warning was broadcast over loudspeakers.
Then, about 22 minutes later, the Interior and Safety Ministry sent messages to Seoul residents saying the earlier warning was sent in error. Ministry officials said it was only intended for people living on a front-line island off the west coast that is closer to the rockets flight path, and that a warning had been sent to them at 6:29 a.m.
Seoul, a city of 10 million people, is only an hours drive from the heavily fortified border with rival North Korea. It would only take a few minutes for forward-deployed North Korean missiles to reach Seoul.
But its extremely rare for South Korea to issue such missile alerts, even though North Korea has conducted more than 100 missile tests in the past 17 months. Wednesdays text messages were only the third of their kind since 2016.
South Koreas military said it asks the safety ministry to send such phone alerts only when North Korean rockets fly in the direction of South Korean territory or falling debris is expected. Most North Korean launches have ended with weapons falling harmlessly in the ocean, except in a few cases when missiles were sent over Japan.
Social media in South Korea were abuzz with criticism of the alert message.
Is it OK for us to receive an alert at 6:41 a.m.? If a real missile was launched, it could have landed in Seoul earlier than the alert message, one Twitter user said.
Others complained that the alert didnt provide any useful details, such as why they needed to go to safer places and where to go.
People received a flurry of texts today, but nothing really happened. When they receive evacuation alerts next time, their thinking would be, Its going to be fine, lets wait a little, said Betty Lee, an English teacher in Seoul.
Another Seoul resident said she struggled to calm her crying 10-year-old daughter who begged her not to go to work after the early morning alert.
She kept crying as we turned on the TV news to see what was going on. She thought things were going to fall from the sky, said the resident, who asked to be identified only by her family name, Byeon, citing privacy concerns.
Later Wednesday, Seoul City Mayor Oh Se-hoon apologized for causing confusion for many residents. He described the incident as a possible overreaction by an official, not a mistaken alert, saying that safety-related issues must be dealt with aggressively.
In Japan, authorities activated a missile warning system at 6:30 a.m. for Okinawa prefecture in the southwest, which was believed to be in the rockets path. The advisory was lifted more than 30 minutes later after the government determined that the rocket wasnt heading to Japan.
Residents of Okinawa said they returned to their daily lives as schools and businesses opened as usual, though they still worried about a possible second launch attempt by North Korea. Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada said Japan will continue to deploy missile defense systems on a number of remote southern islands, at least until North Koreas announced launch window ends June 11.
Wednesday, May 31, 2023 at 2:01 pm