Foreign-language emergency calls more than double in Korea
As a record number of international tourists visit Korea, police are facing a growing demand for interpretation services, both for foreign-language emergency calls and at crime scenes. However, budget constraints have hindered efforts to recruit additional professional interpreters for languages other than English and Chinese, leaving officers to struggle with language barriers, particularly at…
The Korea Times reports a significant rise in foreign-language emergency calls to Korean police forces, more than doubling in the past year. This surge is largely attributed to the record number of international tourists visiting the country, which climbed 21.5 percent year-on-year to 17.11 million in the first nine months of 2025.
However, budget constraints have made it challenging to hire additional interpreters, particularly for less common languages, leading to difficulties in handling language barriers at crime scenes. As a result, police have been receiving nearly double the number of foreign-language calls in 2025 compared to the previous year, with 21,252 such calls logged last year and 21,012 through August of this year.
Brief written by urgent.news from The Korea Times's own syndicated text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
Also reported by 1 other outlet
- Foreign-language emergency calls more than double in Korea koreatimes.co.kr
