Emergency alert texts: three kinds, and the one you cannot turn off

Right now

1. 1Read the end of the text first. An evacuation order names a shelter and ends with an English tag such as Evacuation, Typhoon. That one means go now.
2. 2Install the Emergency Ready App (이머전시레디앱) and set your language. Since June 2026 it covers 22 languages.
3. 3Keep emergency texts switched on in your phone's alert settings. You are allowed to turn them off, and they are the tier that carries evacuation orders.

What to have ready

• The Emergency Ready App, with your language set: The Ministry of the Interior and Safety app for foreign residents. It shows disaster texts, what to do and embassy contacts.
• Your address in Korean, saved where you can find it: Texts are addressed by district and neighbourhood (구 and 동). You need to know which ones are yours to tell whether a text is about you.
• A Korean map app: Naver Map, KakaoMap and Tmap all show civil defence shelters, and so does the Safety Stepping Stone app.

Phrases you can copy and paste

Step by step

1. 1

   Tell the three kinds apart by how they sound

   The Ministry of the Interior and Safety sorts every disaster text into one of three tiers, and the phone treats each one differently. Safety guidance texts (안전안내문자) use your normal message sound. Heatwave, cold wave, fine dust, typhoon and heavy rain advisories and warnings come on this tier, and so does advice to move out early before an area floods. Emergency texts (긴급재난문자) ring at the phone's full volume, with a floor of 40 decibels set in the rule. They carry terror warnings, radiation leaks, evacuation orders, the weather agency's own heavy rain alerts, severe flood information and landslide warnings. The top tier, 위급재난문자, is for a large-scale disaster where loss of life is feared and everyone must receive the message without exception. You can switch the first two off in your phone. You cannot refuse the third.

2. 2

   Read a text in three parts

   The standard wording is short and always in the same order. First the time and the area, then the hazard and its level, then the instruction, and last the sender in square brackets. A typhoon warning reads 오늘 ○○:○○ ○○지역 태풍경보 발효. 실내에 머무르세요. 해안가, 급경사지 등 위험지역 출입 금지, 대피권고를 받으면 즉시 대피하세요. [행정안전부]. In plain terms: a typhoon warning is in effect for the area from that time, stay indoors, keep out of the coast and steep slopes, and leave at once if you are advised to evacuate. The words that change the meaning are few. 주의보 is an advisory and 경보 is a warning, 발효 means in effect and 해제 means lifted, 외출 자제 asks you to stay in, 출입 금지 means no entry, and 대피 means evacuate. The mini dictionary below lists them.

3. 3

   An advisory and a warning are different levels

   Translation apps tend to turn both 주의보 and 경보 into warning, but the weather agency sets separate thresholds. A heavy rain advisory is issued when 60 mm is expected within 3 hours or 110 mm within 12 hours, and a heavy rain warning when 90 mm is expected within 3 hours or 180 mm within 12 hours. A typhoon advisory means the typhoon is expected to bring wind, waves, rain or a storm surge at advisory level. A typhoon warning means wind, waves or storm surge at warning level, or 200 mm of rain or more in total. The timing tells you something too. For a typhoon, the rule sends a text for an advisory only during weekday rush hours, 06:00 to 10:00 and 16:00 to 21:00. At other times of day and all night it sends one only for a warning, so a typhoon text that arrives at night is a warning.

4. 4

   The weather agency sends its own heavy rain alert

   When rain gets extreme, the Korea Meteorological Administration sends an emergency text itself instead of waiting for the district office. The rule sets the trigger: 50 mm in one hour and 90 mm in three hours observed together, or 72 mm in one hour. The text names the district and the neighbourhood, says 50mm/h 이상 강한 비로 침수 등 우려 (flooding feared from rain of 50 mm an hour or more), links to cbs.kma.go.kr for what to do, and ends with Heavy rain [기상청]. Rain like that fills underpasses, basements and underground car parks first. The follow-up texts in the standard list are about exactly those places: do not drive into an underpass when water is running across the road at its entrance, and go up to street level the moment water comes into a basement.

5. 5

   In a flood, go up. For an air raid, go down

   This is where people new to Korea get it backwards. The civil defence shelters marked on map apps, about 17,000 of them in apartment underground car parks, subway stations and underground shopping centres, are built for air raids. Flood, typhoon and storm surge texts send you the other way. The standard advice before heavy rain is to move early to high ground where nothing is at risk of collapsing. For a storm surge it is higher ground or an upper floor of a building. For a typhoon it is inside a building, out of the wind. An evacuation order names the place: (대피명령 발령) … ○○대피소로 즉시 대피 Evacuation, Typhoon. When it is over you get a second text, (대피명령 해제), telling residents they can return to normal life.

6. 6

   Get the texts in your own language

   The texts themselves arrive in Korean. The Ministry of the Interior and Safety runs a separate app for foreign residents, the Emergency Ready App (이머전시레디앱). On 15 June 2026 it expanded from three languages, English, Chinese and Japanese, to 22, which the ministry says covers the language of 97 percent of the roughly 2.87 million foreigners living in Korea. The app shows the disaster texts, what to do in each kind of disaster and embassy contacts. The Korean-language version for residents is Safety Stepping Stone (안전디딤돌), which now shows the texts sent to your current location on its first screen. Both are in the Google Play and Apple app stores.

7. 7

   Sirens with no text are usually a drill

   Korea runs nationwide civil defence drills with real sirens. The one on 20 August 2026 started at 14:00 and ran for 20 minutes. The air raid siren at 14:00 meant go into the nearest shelter or underground space, the alert at 14:15 meant you could come out and move with care, and the all clear came at 14:20. The ministry announces each drill in advance, and the Emergency Ready App carries the schedule and shelter locations in its 22 languages.

8. 8

   If the phone network itself goes down

   One of the standard texts is for a carrier outage. It tells you that emergency Wi-Fi is being provided and how to join it: open your Wi-Fi menu and choose Public WiFi Emergency. The longer version of the text adds that it works whichever carrier you use. If your data suddenly stops during a disaster, look for that network name.

The Korean words

재난문자jaenan munja, disaster alert text

The government broadcast that arrives on every phone in an area.

안전안내문자anjeon annae munja, safety guidance text

Arrives with your normal message sound, and you can turn it off.

긴급재난문자gingeup jaenan munja, emergency alert text

Full volume. Evacuation orders and extreme rain come on this tier. You can turn it off, and should not.

위급재난문자wigeup jaenan munja, critical alert text

The top tier for a large-scale disaster. It cannot be refused.

주의보juuibo, advisory

The lower weather level.

경보gyeongbo, warning

The higher weather level, set at a heavier threshold than an advisory.

발효baryo, in effect

The advisory or warning starts from the time given.

해제haeje, lifted

The advisory, warning or evacuation order is over.

대피daepi, evacuation

대피권고 is advice to leave early, 대피명령 is an order to leave now.

대피소daepiso, shelter

Civil defence shelters are underground. A flood evacuation order names its own place.

외출 자제oechul jaje, avoid going out

Stay in unless you have to go out.

출입 금지churip geumji, no entry

Keep out of the places the text names.

지하차도jihachado, road underpass

The first thing to flood. Do not drive in when water is running at the entrance.

급경사지geupgyeongsaji, steep slope

Hillsides and retaining walls that can give way in heavy rain.

Easy to miss

• ·Going underground in a flood because shelter means basement to you. Typhoon, flood and storm surge texts send you up and away from water. Underground shelters are for air raids.
• ·Switching off emergency texts after one alarm at 3 a.m. Your phone lets you do it, and it is the tier that brings evacuation orders and the weather agency's extreme rain alerts.
• ·Letting a translation app read 주의보 and 경보 as the same word. An advisory and a warning are different levels, so check the Korean word itself.
• ·Ignoring a text because it came with the ordinary sound. Advice to evacuate early arrives on the safety guidance tier, the same quiet one used for fine dust.
• ·Assuming a text is about you. Alerts are sent by area and name the district and neighbourhood. Compare them with your own Korean address before you act or relax.

You can skip this if

• If you or someone near you is in danger right now, call 119. The guide on who to call in an emergency covers what to say and how to get an interpreter.
• Real disaster texts end with the sender in square brackets, such as [행정안전부], [기상청] or the name of a district office. Texts from delivery apps, banks and shops are not part of this system.

Where this comes from

• Regulation on disaster text broadcasting, Ministry of the Interior and Safety directive no. 361 of 4 February 2026, annex 1 (which alerts go out on which tier, volume and whether you can refuse them) and annex 2 (the standard wording of each text) (Korean Law Information Center, 법제처 국가법령정보센터)
• Criteria for weather advisories and warnings (Korea Meteorological Administration, 기상청)
• Press release of 15 June 2026 on the Emergency Ready App moving from 3 to 22 languages (Ministry of the Interior and Safety, 행정안전부)
• Press release of 19 August 2026 on the nationwide civil defence drill, its sirens and where shelters are listed (Ministry of the Interior and Safety, 행정안전부)
• Safety Stepping Stone and Emergency Ready App, what each app does (Ministry of the Interior and Safety, 행정안전부)