韓国教授が核シェルターの勧め　北の核攻撃対策を訴え

【堤川ＡＦＰ＝時事】韓国人の建築学教授イ・テグ氏は、北朝鮮による核攻撃が始まった場合に計画していることがある。特設の核シェルターに避難して少なくとも２週間は地下にとどまり、放射性物質による汚染を回避するのだ。（写真は、自ら建てた核シェルターの昇降口を開けるイ・テグ氏）
　シェルターは首都ソウルの南東約１２０キロの堤川市にあるイ氏の所有地に設置されている。厚い壁と鋼鉄で補強した扉、それに空気清浄機を備えた地下１メートルのシェルターは、核による惨事から身を守り、通常ミサイルの直撃にも耐えられるという。
　核攻撃による放射性降下物に対してしっかり備えるよう、韓国国民に呼び掛けるイ氏の運動の一環だ。「北朝鮮はここから１００キロしか離れていません。生物兵器や核ミサイルが飛んで来る恐れがあります」
　■「モデルシェルター」
　内務省に相当する行政安全部のデータによると、韓国には全土で１万７０００か所以上の防空壕（ごう）があり、そのうち３０００か所余りはソウルに集中している。
　同市の地下鉄駅は公共の防空壕も兼ねているが、核シェルターではない。
　韓国では１９７０年代、主要都市にある一定の大きさ以上の建物に、地下室の設置を義務付ける法律ができた。有事の際に防空壕として使うためだ。
　だがソウルでは地価が高騰し、民間の建物の大半ではこうした地下室は駐車場や、アカデミー賞受賞映画『パラサイト 半地下の家族』で有名になった半地下住宅に転用されている。
　イ氏が建造した「モデルシェルター」の費用は、人件費を除いて７０００万ウォン（約７３０万円）ほどだが、教育省に申請した研究助成金で賄った。
　イ氏は、このシェルターを見て後に続く人が出てくることを望んでいる。設計図についてはすでに多くの問い合わせがあった。その一つは韓国空軍の当局者で今年、シェルターを見学しに来た。
　イ氏によると、核攻撃に耐えるシェルターを造る人々はそれを秘密にしておきたがる。緊急時に友人や家族、近所の人々が避難場所を求めて押し掛けてくるのを恐れているからだ。
　「私がこのシェルターを造った時も、攻撃が始まったらここに来ると皆が言っていました。でもここは１２人しか収容できないのです」とイ氏は語った。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2022/11/15-16:56）

If North Korea unleashes a nuclear attack on the South, architecture professor Lee Tae-goo has a plan: he'll retreat to his purpose-built bunker and stay underground for at least two weeks to avoid radiation poisoning.
With thick concrete walls, steel-reinforced doors and an air purification system, Lee says his shelter, buried under a metre (three feet) of earth, could keep him safe from a nuclear disaster and withstand a direct hit from a conventional missile.
Built on his property in Jecheon city about 75 miles (120 kilometres) southeast of the capital Seoul, the government-funded bunker is part of a campaign by Lee to get South Koreans to take preparations for a nuclear fallout more seriously.
Just 100 kilometres away from here we have North Korea, from which biological or nuclear missiles could fly, Lee told AFP.
He said he was also extremely concerned about a Fukushima-style meltdown at one of South Korea's ageing nuclear reactors.
South Koreans have not been required to build personal shelters for ages. There's a lack of public shelters and in many cases they're far away, he added.
Since the Korean War ended in 1953 with an armistice rather than a peace treaty, Seoul has remained technically at war with Pyongyang, and both sides routinely accuse each other of provocations that could tip them back into open conflict.
Pyongyang conducted its first nuclear test in 2006, and leader Kim Jong Un has recently ramped up work on weapons programmes banned by the UN, including staging drills it claimed simulated showering South Korea with tactical nukes.
Although Seoul's military maintains what it calls an utmost readiness for an attack, Lee said most civilians have forgotten the war and are not prepared.

- 'First-class shelters' -

South Korea has a network of more than 17,000 bomb shelters nationwide, according to interior ministry data, with over 3,000 of them in Seoul.
The city's subway stations double as public air raid shelters but they are not nuclear-safe.
In the 1970s, the country had a law requiring buildings over a certain size in major cities to have a basement, which would serve as a bunker in war.
But in Seoul, due to soaring property prices, most private buildings have converted those basements into parking space or the dank subterranean flats made famous by Oscar-winning movie Parasite.
This has Lee, a mild-mannered professor at Semyung University, concerned.
South Korea has a first-class shelter system for the military, he said, but the civilian side lags far behind.
Lee's model bunker cost around 70 million won ($48,000) -- excluding labour costs -- to construct, which was covered by a ministry of education research grant that he applied for and won.
He said he hopes it will inspire others to follow suit, adding that he has had many enquiries about his blueprint, including from officials from South Korea's Air Force, who inspected his bunker earlier this year.
For urban high-rise apartment dwellers, Lee recommends retro-fitting basement parking lots to double as bunkers, and says the government should nuclear-proof subway tunnels.
- Secret -
Although many in South Korea have grown numb to the constant threats from Pyongyang, there are signs that more citizens like Lee are taking matters into their own hands.
One local company, Chumdan Bunker System, started selling nuclear-proof bunkers at a Seoul showroom in 2017 -- the year that Kim conducted his last nuclear test.
Chumdan's website advertises an underground bunker capable of withstanding nuclear explosions, radiation, chemical agents.
But the company told AFP that while they were seeing growing interest in their products, this had not yet translated into sales growth.
There has been an increase in online traffic to our website but the number of actual orders remain the same, an Chamdan employee told AFP.
Lee said people who construct nuclear-proof bunkers prefer to keep them secret, fearing they will be inundated with requests from friends, family and neighbours for shelter during an emergency.
Even when I built this bunker, all these people were telling me they'd come if the country comes under attack. But this place can only fit 12 people, he said.