Government to Assess Evacuation/Escape Measures of Construction Workers In Middle Eastern Countries

The government has decided to consider a measure to evacuate construction workers currently working in 11 Middle Eastern countries, if the security status in this area continues to worsen.

The government also ordered all Korean overseas flights to have one or two male security guards on board.

At the official residence of the prime minister in Samchung-dong, Seoul, the government held a counter-terrorism commission on Tuesday, presided by Prime Minister Goh Kun and attended by the related ministers, to work out the safety measures both within and outside the country due to the recent tragedy in which two Koreans were killed in Iraq the day before.

Making clear of the Korean citizens’ whereabouts in the problematic regions such as Iraq and the neighboring countries, the government decided to prepare two stages of urgent countermeasures. The first stage is to strengthen the network of communication among “Ministry of Construction & Transportation, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and construction companies” in order to secure the construction workers from any contingencies in these regions, and the second stage is to consider evacuating or temporarily escaping from danger if the situation becomes aggravated.

In addition, the government has prohibited the supply units which were previously dispatched to Iraq from any activities outside the camp grounds until the situation improves.

As for the measures addressing the airports, any goods loaded onto airplanes departing from or laying over in the problematic countries where chances of terrorism outbreaks are relatively higher than the others should go through X-ray detectors if necessary.

The government has also decided to drive forward on checking the security status of important facilities such as the National Intelligence Service (NIS) and Office of Prime Minister (OPM) and to speed up the legislation of the law of “preclusion of terrorism.”