The Soul of Seoul

The first time you hear an air raid siren in South Korea, it’s disorienting. Public address systems blast a long, rising-and-falling tone, civil defense personnel appear on the street directing people toward shelters, and traffic stops dead in its tracks. If you don’t know what’s happening, it can definitely be alarming for a few minutes… until you look around and notice locals going about their business as usual, then you might have some questions. It’s a drill. Specifically, it’s part of Korea’s nationwide civil defense exercise, and once you understand the pattern, it stops being unsettling and just becomes one of those things you adjust to living here, or visiting…