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On Monday this week, when heavy rain poured down in Seoul, flooding places and causing casualties, controversy arose over the fact that the president issued an emergency order late at night.

We covered when the agency in charge reported, how the presidential directive came out, and the process.



This is the exclusive report of reporter Kang Min-woo.



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This is a document submitted to the National Assembly by the Korea Meteorological Administration.



At 11 am on the 7th, the day before the heavy rain, up to 300mm of rain is expected in the metropolitan area, so disaster prevention measures are needed to prepare for river flooding, flooding, and landslides.



In fact, on the afternoon of the 8th, flood damage began to occur in the metropolitan area due to torrential rains, and the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters issued emergency level 1 at 7:30 pm, and upgraded to emergency level 2 in an hour and a half.



However, at the time, the head of the disaster response team in the Presidential Office's State Affairs Office was on vacation, and the heavy rain was not reported to the president properly.



[President Yoon Seok-yeol: When I left work, I saw that the other apartments and the apartments below had already started flooding...

.]



And it was confirmed that the first emergency instructions from the president, such as “take special measures such as evacuation of residents in dangerous areas in advance,” were delivered to disaster departments such as the Fire Department at 11:40 pm that night. 



It was 1:15 a.m. the next day, an hour and a half after that, when this order was issued to all municipalities across the country.



From the morning of the 8th to 4 am on the 9th alone, 7 people died and 6 people went missing.



[Moon Jin-seok / Democratic Party Rep.: It is as if the presidential office gave up the disaster management control tower on its own.]



After Prime Minister Han Duk-soo consulted with the president, the presidential office urgently instructed the relevant ministries to take countermeasures around 9 pm on the 8th, and the president gave instructions late at night. One case was to avoid confusion with the Prime Minister and to prevent a riot at work the next day.



(Video coverage: Park Dae-young, Kim Heung-gi, video editing: Park Soo-seon)