Alexander Smith
With thousands of North Korean artillery pieces little more than 30 miles away, Seoul has established a vast underground network of air-raid shelters across this sprawling city of 10 million people.
But many residents in the South Korean capital admit they don't even know where their nearest shelter is. And few seem concerned about that.
Most of the 3,253 civil defense shelters dotted across the city are hiding in plain sight.
They double up as underground shopping malls, subway stations and hotel parking lots — all dug extra deep by the South Korean government over recent decades with this dual purpose in mind.
To the newcomer, their red "shelter" signs, written in Korean, English and Chinese, are hard to miss.
But many locals, jaded by 60 years of tension and threats from Pyongyang, say they rarely even consider that many of the places where they shop, take the train or park their vehicles also serve as a subterranean defensive infrastructure.
"I don't even think about these shelters," Oh Sun Jin, a 36-year-old banker, told NBC News on Thursday. "I don't have a plan about what to do in the event of a North Korean attack because I think many young people, Korean people, don't think about this seriously."
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/seoul-s-bomb-shelters-largely-ignored-locals-despite-north-korea-n807901
