• Journal of the Korean Regional Science Association
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.53-66
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• 2023

Due to COVID-19, the external activities of urban residents have greatly shrunk, causing a lot of damage to the commercial district, such as a decrease in population and sales. The downturn in commercial districts means the collapse of the infrastructure of the national economy, and can have serious side effects on the local economy and individual lives. Therefore, it is necessary to look at the alley commercial area, which is closely related to the national local economy, and pay attention to the damage and stagnation of the alley commercial area where small business owners are concentrated. The purpose of this study is to classify alley commercial districts into growth commercial districts and decline commercial districts by using commercial sales time series data and DTW time series group analysis for the pre- and post-COVID-19 period. The main findings of the study are as follows. First, using the time series data on commercial sales before and after COVID-19, the alley commercial districts were divided into growth commercial districts and decline commercial districts, and it was confirmed that the distribution of growth commercial districts and decline commercial districts was regionally different. Therefore, it is necessary to actively manage commercial districts in areas where many declining commercial districts are distributed, and it is required to prepare policies for each region in consideration of the spatial distribution of declining commercial districts. Second, during the COVID-19 period, face-to-face essential industries, density of guest facilities, and population density negatively affected the sustainability of commercial districts, which is the opposite of previous studies. This is the result of empirically confirming the specificity of the COVID-19 period and the negative effects of the integrated economy, and can be used as basic data for effective commercial district management and policy preparation in the event of a national disaster in the future. Third, the characteristics of the background of the commercial district had a significant effect on the sustainability of the commercial district, and the negative effect of the attracting facilities inducing population concentration in the background area was found. This suggests that it is necessary to consider the characteristics of the background as well as the inside of the commercial district when establishing policies to revitalize the commercial district and support small business owners in a national disaster situation.

• Korean Security Journal
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• no.22
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• pp.113-144
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• 2010

Bioterrorism is becoming more attractive to terrorist groups owing to the dramatic increase in the utility and lethality of biological weapons in line with today's cutting-edge biological science and technology. The Republic of Korea is facing both internal and external terrorist threats, as well as the possible biological warfare by North Korea. Therefore, it is essential to establish an effective bioterrorism response system in the ROK. In order to come up with the adequate response system for the ROK, an in-depth study has been conducted on the current bioterrorism response system of the U.S. whose preparedness is considered relatively adamant. As a result, the following facts have been found: (1)the legislation with regard to bioterrorism has been established or amended according to the current situation in the U.S., (2)the counter terrorism activities have been integrated with the Department of the Homeland Security as the central agency in order to maximize the national CT capacity, (3)Specific procedures and instructions to cope with bioterrorism have been made into manuals so as to enhance the working-level response capabilities. Next, the analysis on the ROK's bioterrorism response system has been performed in various categories, including the legislation system, task role distribution, cooperative relations, and resource application. It turned out that the ROK's legislation basis is relatively weak and it lacks the apparatus to integrate the bioterrorism response activities on the national level. The shortage of the adequate response facilities and resources, as well as the poor management of manpower have also emerged as problems that hinder the effective CT implementations. Through an analytical and comparative study of the U.S. and the ROK systems, this paper presents several ways to ameliorate improve the current system in the ROK as follows: (1)establish the anti-terrorism law, which would be the basic legal basis for the bioterrorism-related matters; and make revisions to the disaster-related legislation, relevant to bioterrorism response activities, (2)establish an integrated body that has a powerful authority to coordinate the relevant CT agencies; and converge the decentralized functions to maximize the overall response capacity, (3)install the laboratories with a high biosafety level and secure enough of the strategic medical stock-pile, (4)enhance the ability of the inexperienced response personnel by providing with a manual that has detailed instructions.