South Korea issued a travel alert for France on Saturday as part of efforts to ensure the safety of its citizens residing or traveling in the European country, in reaction to a series of terrorist attacks in Paris that killed at least 129 people.
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| Vice Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul presides over a meeting with government officials to discuss protection measures for citizens in France on Saturday. (Yonhap) |
No South Korean victims had been reported as of Sunday, said Seoul’s Foreign Ministry, which has tried to contact all of the South Korean residents, students and tourists in France to verify their safety. Currently, some 14,000 South Koreans are in the country.
The alert was applied after Seoul’s Vice Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul held a special meeting with officials from his ministry, Cheong Wa Dae, the Prime Minister’s Office, the National Police Agency and the Ministry of Public Safety and Security to discuss national security measures.
Seoul issued a code-yellow alert, or Level 2, for Paris and its surrounding area, and blue or Level 1 for the rest of the country. Blue is the lowest level of the four-level alert system. It calls for travelers’ precautions, while yellow urges Koreans to refrain from traveling to the country.
When the red alert is issued, Koreans are called on to withdraw from a foreign country, while the highest-level black alert means an outright travel ban.
Hours after the terrorist attacks, Seoul’s Foreign Ministry condemned them as “heinous” acts and vowed to join international efforts to eradicate terrorism.
“The ROK (Republic of Korea) government strongly supports the French government’s efforts to eliminate terrorism and will continue to join the efforts of the international community to eradicate terrorism,” the ministry said in a statement.
“(We will do so) in line with its firm position that terrorism is an uncivilized and inhumane criminal act that cannot be justified under any circumstances and must be eradicated by all means.”
The ministry, along with its French-based embassy, is currently running an emergency taskforce dedicated to ensuring the safety of Korean residents in France.
Meanwhile, the South Korean military decided to strengthen its antiterrorism posture and check if there were any vulnerable national facilities or its overseas military operations that could be targets of terrorism.
“We will strengthen our psychological readiness with the possibility in mind that a similar attack could take place. We will also check and address the vulnerabilities facing our military’s overseas contingents,” a military official said, declining to be named.
Officials also said the government would try to maintain seamless inter-agency cooperation to deal with terrorism and step up antiterrorism capabilities to address growing public concerns about the possibility of terrorist attacks in Korea.
The French Embassy in Seoul said it would receive condolences from French residents in Korea from Sunday through Monday afternoon. French Ambassador Fabien Penone said that a book of condolences is placed at the embassy to share French expats’ deep sympathy for the victims and bereaved families.
Seoul’s Vice Foreign Minister Lim Sung-nam will visit the French Embassy to deliver the government’s condolences.
South Korean political parties strongly criticized the terrorist attacks, calling them as a “crime against humanity.”
“The international community should condemn this barbaric and vile terrorist acts, and should bring the culprits to justice,” said Lee Jang-woo, spokesperson of the ruling Saenuri Party.
Kim Young-rok, spokesperson of the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy, said that the indiscriminate terrorist attacks cannot be forgive “for any cause and any reason.”
“We strongly denounce the attacks and are angry with the world’s peace-loving citizens at the attacks,” he said.
By Song Sang-ho (sshluck@heraldcorp.com)
