1. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea has decided on January 30, 2019 to lift the Special Travel Alert (tantamount to travel-alert Level 3, Recommend Withdrawal) it issued on December 28, 2018, in replacement of travel-alert Level 2 (Highly Cautious) for parts of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and to put travel-alert Level 2 back in place in those areas.

° The decision was based on the judgment that new DR Congo President Felix Tshisekedi, after winning the presidential election on December 30, 2018, had been inaugurated on January 24, 2019, in a peaceful transfer of power, restoring the political and public security situations of the country to the state before the Special Travel Alert was issued.

※ Travel-alert levels for different parts of the DR Congo after the Special Travel Alert has been lifted

- Travel-alert Level 2 (Yellow Alert): the areas other than the following under Red Alert

- Travel-alert Level 3 (Red Alert):

∙the provinces of Haut-Uele, Ituri, North-Kivu, South-Kivu, Maniema, Bas-Uele, Kasai, Kasai Central, Kasai-Oriental and Tanganyika

∙parts of the provinces of Haut-Lomami, Lualaba and Haut-Katanga

∙areas within 50 kilometers from the borders with the Republic of South Sudan and the Central African Republic

2. Even though the Special Travel Alert has been lifted, as travel-alert levels are still in place in the DR Congo, the Korean nationals staying in the areas under travel-alert Level 3 are advised to leave the country unless there are urgent matters to attend to; those in the areas under Level 2 to pay serious heed to their safety; those planning to travel to the areas under Level 3 to cancel or postpone their plans; and those planning to visit the areas under Level 2 to seriously reconsider the need to do so.

* unofficial translation