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Hawaii site is
expected for
S. Korean talks

The conference will
cover expanding South Korea's
civil defense system

By Suzanne Tswei
Star-Bulletin

Top American and South Korean government officials were expected today to name Hawaii as the site of their annual conference for discussions to expand the civil defense system in Korea.

James Lee Witt, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, is meeting with Korean officials in Seoul and was expected to announce today an agreement between the two countries to conduct disaster management training and conferences. The training will be held on the mainland and in Hawaii.

Today's agreement is the result of a May agreement between the two nations to share disaster management research data.

Hawaii is expected to be chosen as the conference site because of its unique assets in disaster management, said Bernice Bowers, who helped market Hawaii as a disaster management training center in the Pacific and Asia regions.

"Hawaii is the natural choice. We have numerous agencies that have the know-how that can help Korea. We have weather tracking systems and leading emergency health care services that Korea can learn from and develop to suit her particular needs," she said.

Scheduled for April 2001

The first conference is scheduled for next April. It will bring representatives from government and private organizations of both countries to Honolulu to discuss the latest civil defense technologies and how they can be applied to manage Korea's chronic flooding and other natural disasters.

A similar conference was held in Honolulu last year, when 40 experts from government agencies and private businesses met to discuss coordinating civil defense efforts. Hawaii officials hope conferences and training with Korean representatives will lead to similar ventures with other Asian countries. Earlier this year 40 delegates from 11 Asian nations came to Honolulu for a similar meeting.

As result of last year's meeting, the South Korean government committed money and resources to training personnel in Hawaii, Bowers said. The first training program will begin in August with 13 faculty members from a leading Red Cross nursing college in Seoul.

The program will be conducted by the Center of Excellence in Disaster Management & Humanitarian Assistance at Tripler Medical Center, with experts from the University of Hawaii. It will focus on post-disaster triage, psychological trauma, prevention and treatment of communicable diseases.

"We think this first training program will prove to the Korean government that Hawaii has world-class expertise in the disaster management area. It will be very important as we position Hawaii as the leading in disaster management and humanitarian services," Bowers said.

Bowers and Janis Koh, another Hawaii executive who led efforts to promote Hawaii's budding disaster management industry, will coordinate future meetings and training. They first visited Korea in 1998 during a trade mission to emphasis Hawaii's expertise in emergency medical health care and disaster management.

Inouye plays key role

Coincidentally, a day before they arrived, Korea suffered one of the worst flood disasters in history. Bowers and Koh immediately were granted a meeting with Dr. Woncheol Cho, who was appointed Korea's coordinator for flood management. Cho and Sen. Dan Inouye have been instrumental in linking Korea and Hawaii in disaster management training, Bowers said.

"It has been truly amazing how fast the Korean government has moved on this. When they said something is going to happen, it happens. This relationship has great potential for Hawaii," Bowers said. As the training expands and continues, Hawaii stands to benefit economically as Korea funds the programs, she said.

"Korea has several hundreds of these nursing colleges and potentially all of these colleges would want to send some of their faculty and students to Hawaii for medical training. It's a rather large market. Then there are other kinds of training that can be conducted in Hawaii," Bowers said.

Unlike America, Korea does not have a long-term program to coordinate volunteer, military and civil defense agencies to provide relief and recovery services during disasters. For the last two years, Korea has tried to beef up disaster prevention and preparation and has earmarked $20 billion over the next 10 years for these efforts, Koh said.