Thousands of facilities were found for a second consecutive year to have poor reception of disaster broadcasts in tunnels and underground spaces nationwide. Critics say the Korea Communications Commission identifies facilities with poor reception but does not run procedures to check whether improvements are actually made.

Data submitted by the Korea Communications Commission to Lee Jeong-heon (이정헌), a lawmaker from the Democratic Party and a member of the National Assembly's Science, ICT, Broadcasting and Communications Committee, showed that a survey of 5,647 facilities nationwide last year found poor reception at 3,723 sites, or 65.9 percent, for FM radio and 4,170 sites, or 73.8 percent, for DMB.

By facility type, rail facilities had the highest rate of poor reception. Of 814 rail facilities surveyed, FM radio reception was not smooth at 800 sites, or 98.3 percent, and DMB at 724 sites, or 88.9 percent. Road facilities also showed poor reception, at 63.6 percent for FM radio and 70.0 percent for DMB. Subway facilities had poor reception rates of 49.7 percent for FM radio and 75.9 percent for DMB.

A significant number of facilities saw no improvement in poor reception over a long period. Facilities found to have poor reception for two consecutive years in 2024 and 2025 numbered 2,798 for FM radio and 3,240 for DMB. That accounted for 49.5 percent and 57.4 percent, respectively, of all facilities surveyed last year.

In rail facilities in particular, poor reception was found for two straight years at 691 sites, or 84.9 percent, for FM radio and 677 sites, or 83.2 percent, for DMB. Road facilities had poor reception at 1,738 sites, or 46.5 percent, for FM radio and 1,918 sites, or 51.3 percent, for DMB. Subway facilities had poor reception at 369 sites, or 33.7 percent, and 645 sites, or 58.9 percent, respectively.

Poor reception rates continue to rise. The overall DMB poor reception rate increased to 73.8 percent last year from 62.9 percent in 2021, 68.4 percent in 2023 and 70.9 percent in 2024. Over the same period, the FM radio poor reception rate stood at 67.0 percent, 68.2 percent, 63.8 percent and 65.9 percent.

The problem is that post-management systems for facilities with poor reception are insufficient. Under the current Broadcasting and Communications Development Basic Act, the installation and operation of disaster broadcasting relay equipment are handled by facility management agencies such as the Korea Expressway Corp and local governments.

The Korea Communications Commission identifies poor reception facilities through field surveys and notifies the relevant agencies of the results. But it does not operate procedures to check whether actual improvements are made after notification. With no provisions for sanctions on facilities where improvements are not made, it relies on voluntary actions by facility management agencies.

The commission's technical support also failed to lead to actual facility improvements. Of 166 road facilities that received technical support and consulting from 2022 to 2024, 77 completed improvements, for an improvement rate of 46.4 percent. The annual improvement rates were 56.3 percent in 2022, 33.3 percent in 2023 and 47.1 percent in 2024.

The commission says encouraging facility management agencies to make their own improvements is efficient given limited budgets, but the data showed that more than half of facilities were not improved even after technical support.

Lee said, "The fact that thousands of facilities with poor reception of disaster broadcasts persist for two consecutive years is a serious problem directly linked to public safety." He added, "If the Korea Communications Commission identifies faulty facilities every year but stops at notifying survey results, the same problem will inevitably be repeated."

He added, "The commission should continuously check whether facilities with poor reception are being improved, and it should make it mandatory to identify causes and take follow-up measures for facilities where improvements are delayed."