Korea is not considered to be one of the safe zones for earthquakes any more. According to the records of the historical records and recent earthquake events in Korea, the possibillty of disastrous seismic hazards cannot be ignored, Korea Earthquake Engineering Research Center (KEERC) and Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea(EESK) have been established by that consensus. In this paper, historical earthquake records and seismicity in Korea are reviewed. And the research activities and the research system for the earthquake hazards mitigation of KEERC are introduced and the efforts of ESSK to renovate seismic design code system and to optimize the protection levels against earthquake disasters is explained.

• Chang Sung Pil(Director, Korea Earthquake Engineering Research Center, Seoul National University & Chairman Earthquake Engneering Society of Korea)