KMA has developed and begun to operate an Earthquake Early Warning (EEW) system to mitigate earthquake and tsunami damage since January 22, 2015. An EEW is issued mainly by KMA to detect earthquakes in progress and send immediate alerts to the national emergency management agencies, the news media and local authorities, etc.

  The EEW system automatically analyzes and predicts the rough area of the earthquake epicenter and magnitude of the event, upon detection of a P-wave from any 6 or more of the 150 seismometers installed throughout Korea. These estimated forecasts allow KMA to warn people in affected regions through TV and radio if strong shaking is expected. An EEW alert is released to the general public in case that an earthquake with magnitude larger than 5.0. KMA plans to issue an EEW alert 5 to 10 seconds by 2021.