HSEM: Stay indoors

If you are not instantly killed by a nuclear blast, the next best thing to do is to seek shelter indoors.

At least that’s the advice of a planner from the CNMI Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, which held an open house yesterday to educate the public about what the office does.

With tensions increasing between the administration of U.S. President Donald J. Trump and the North Korean government of Kim Jung Un, the latter has been constantly threatening to strike the neighboring island of Guam.

Major news outlets recently reported that North Korea has successfully tested a hydrogen bomb, a nuclear weapon several times more destructive compared to the atomic bombs used by the U.S. on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

HSEM planner and grants manager B.J. Nicolas told Saipan Tribune that HSEM is monitoring the situation the North Korea situation with the Guam Homeland Security Office of Civil Defense and Hawaii Emergency Management Agency, adding that information between the three agencies is constantly shared.

If worse comes to worst, it is best to stay indoors to prevent a fatal nuclear fallout following the initial blast, he said. This is also assuming that the blast area does not affect the CNMI.

“Stay indoors and ensure you have water and food to last you for three to five days. Stay tuned to media outlets,” said Nicolas.

More information on how to handle emergencies may be found at the HSEM website at http://www.cnmihsem.gov.mp.

Opens house

In order to display how information on several events is obtained, the CNMI Emergency Operations Center on Capitol Hill is currently open to the public from Sept. 6 through 8.

A tour is provided, accompanied with a preparedness brief, to discuss preparedness measures and upcoming weather outlook for the rest of 2017.

The tour is open to the public twice a day—at 10am and at 2pm. Contact EOC at 237-8000 for more information.

Unfazed

The South Korean community on Saipan itself is not fazed by North Korean threats.

Korean Community chair Lim Jae Yeol and Korean Community secretary Simon Sin said the local Korean community is not at all disturbed by the threats of the North Korean leader to attack Guam.

According to Sin, Kim is smart enough to know that if he had gone through with the plan to fire a missile toward a United States territory, North Korea would suffer the consequences immensely.

“Kim Jong Un isn’t a crazy guy. He knows that if he does that, he will disappear within a few hours …we know he’s not going to do that,” said Sin.

According to Yeol, North Korea can probably get away with a war against South Korea, but the entire Korean community knows that North Korea doesn’t stand a chance against the United States.

“They know how big America is. The Korean people know so we don’t worry about it, he cannot do it,” said Yeol.

Yeol said the government is the reason why the whole situation has been blown out of proportion. According to Yeol, everyone but South Koreans fear the threat.

“Politicians, they talk about danger and war and that was the problem. Our people didn’t have that problem,” said Yeol.

The Korean Community on Saipan believes that although Kim may be “all talk,” he is still capable of posing a threat to other countries.

The bigger threat to the Korean community is that Kim will continue to further develop a missile that can travel as far as the United States. “The development of the missile and the warhead, he did what he said,” said Sin.

Sin believes Kim will not give up until he develops a threat big enough to push the United States to withdraw its army from South Korea.

Sin, along with the entire Korean community, believes Kim’s threats against the Pacific is not something to be worried about.

North Korea and the U.S. and South Korea are technically still at war, with the parties just signing an armistice after the end of the Korean Conflict in 1953. (With Kimberly Bautista)