The Philippine Embassy in Korea on Thursday gave an assurance that its contingency plan for Filipinos is ready as tension between the two Koreas heightened.

In an email to GMA News Online, Philippine Ambassador Luis Cruz said the embassy “has constantly been updating its contingency plan in consultation with the Filipino community.” On Wednesday, the two Koreas agreed to resume reunions for divided families. However, a day later, North Korea threatened to forego of the deal unless South Korea does away with planned military drills with the United States toward the end of the month. The National Defense Commission (NDC) of North Korea labelled as “outrageous” the South’s alleged “aggressive war maneuvering.” South Korea, on the other hand, said the military exercises would push through. Cruz said the South Korea leadership “has always been pragmatic in dealing with regional security issues.” “Since the Korean War ended in 1953, no major security incident occurred in the Korean Peninsula. On the other hand, its differences with Japan are handled through diplomacy,” Cruz said. According to the 2012 Stock Estimate of the Commission on Filipinos Overseas, there are 68,911 Filipinos in South Korea and only eight in North Korea. Contingency plan According to the Philippine Embassy, Korea is under “Alert Level 1 or heightened alertness.” “The community is advised to remain calm and to continuously monitor developments in South Korea,” it said. On its website, the embassy asked Filipinos there to become familiar with Korean signs indicating shelters where they could stay if the tension between the two Koreas worsens. These emergency shelters are located in Busan, Chungcheongbukdo, Daegu, Daejeon City, Gangwondo, Gwangju, Gyeonggido, Gyeongsangbukdo, Gyeongsannamdo, Incheon, Jeju Island, Jeollabukdo, Jeollanamdo, Seoul, and Ulsan City. For the exact locations of the shelters, the affected Filipinos are encouraged to visit the Philippine Embassy website. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Korea said an application for smartphones, both Android and iPhones, to locate the emergency shelters in South Korea are also available to the public. “Users of smartphones can download the application from Google Play/Play Store for Android users or App Store for iPhone users,” the embassy said. It added, “Once the app is downloaded, click on the icon named 'shelter' to locate the shelter nearest you (if the phone's location service is turned on) or to locate the shelter nearest the address you will input in the application.” — KBK, GMA News