New Emergency Management Agency Set to be Launched in June

The Emergency Management Agency, which will be responsible for comprehensive disaster management, will be launched on June 1 with a crew of 435 in one bureau, three divisions, and 19 departments.

Under the amendment of the law on government organization, the organization of the new agency was decided at the Cabinet meeting on May 11, said the Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs.

The amendment requires the agency director to be chosen from a pool of category 1 administrative officials or disaster control officials. It also contains a proviso requiring the assistant director to be a disaster control official if the director is an administrative official.

The director, who is on par with the vice minister, supervises one bureau, the planning and management bureau, and three divisions: the prevention planning division, and the response and management divisions, and the recuperation support division. The Central Firefighter School and the Central 119 Rescue Team, the Institute of Disaster Prevention, and the Civil Defense Corps Headquarters, all currently under the control of the Home Affairs Ministry, will be part of the new agency.

“We are currently in discussions and will appoint the director by next week at the earliest,” said Government Administration and Home Affairs Minister Huh Sung-kwan.

Hyun-Doo Lee ruchi@donga.com