Disaster text alerts expanded to 157 characters, adding evacuation locations and instructions

[Financial News] Starting on the 30th, the character limit for safety guidance messages announcing disaster situations will increase from 90 to 157. When disasters such as torrential rain or wildfires occur, the messages will be able to provide more detailed information not only about danger zones but also about evacuation locations and what to do. The measure will also reduce the repeated sending of disaster alerts with similar content.
The Ministry of the Interior and Safety said on the 29th that it would raise the character limit for safety guidance messages from 90 to 157. The system, which has been piloted with local governments since October last year, will now be extended to all issuing organizations, including public institutions.
Until now, disaster alerts were limited to 90 characters, making it difficult to convey in a single message the area affected by a disaster, the danger, evacuation locations and what to do. To provide multiple pieces of information, authorities had to shorten the content or send it in separate messages. The measure will increase the number of characters that can fit in one message by about 74%.
However, the change will not apply to all disaster alerts. Critical disaster alerts and emergency disaster alerts will remain limited to 90 characters, as before. This takes into account the possibility that some older mobile phones may not properly receive 157-character messages.
The Ministry of the Interior and Safety began piloting 157-character disaster alerts in four cities, counties and districts last October, then expanded the trial to three metropolitan or provincial governments in February this year. From May, the system was used nationwide for 31 types of disasters, including summer disasters, with 83 message templates. During the pilot period, about 48% of all alerts sent were 157-character messages, and no complaints about receiving the messages were received.
The government will also address the repeated sending of disaster alerts with similar content. The Ministry of the Interior and Safety will formally launch a “pre-screening feature for similar and duplicate messages,” which checks whether a message is similar to or duplicates previously sent content before it is sent.
In a pilot of the feature, the number of disaster alerts sent fell by about 20%, from 11,433 in the same period the previous year to 9,173.
Park Hyeong-bae, director of the Safety Prevention Policy Office at the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, said, “We expect to provide the public with more detailed information about disaster situations and what to do, while reducing unnecessary repeated alerts.”

[email protected] Lee Bomi Reporter