A burning town in Seoul
South Korea's outbreak was a zombie outbreak which occurred in the year of 2016 in South Korea in the movie Train To Busan. Within only one day, it led to the collapse of the South Korean government. Eventually, the United States, NATO, the United Nations, and other nations contained the outbreak by quarantining the entirety of South Korea.
History[]
It is unknown how the virus started due to a lack of information, however it is widely believed that the virus originated from a bio-factory. This belief is widely supported by the fact that, during the intro of Train to Busan when a truck driver passes through a checkpoint, two men in biohazard outfits mentioned a leakage near the location. However, as the virus was released, it started to spread throughout the South Korean countryside, with animals also becoming infected, with the deer being run over in the beginning as an example. It was unknown how the virus began to spread uncontrollably throughout the countryside, but the virus eventually reached the city of Seoul, with a homeless man becoming the first victim to be infected, as seen in the prequel film, Seoul Station.
As seen in the film, Seoul Station, the city of Seoul became completely overrun as the virus spread throughout the city insanely fast, and thousands of people were becoming infected within hours. Eventually, riot police arrive, attempting to keep order within the streets of Seoul, presumably unaware of what was going on. Dozens of people with bite wounds were rushed to hospitals in Seoul, where they eventually attack and infect others, taking over hospitals within minutes, with a hospital in Seoul being an example when Suk-gyu and Ki-woong make their way there only to discover that zombies have already taken over the place. People in Seoul attempted to survive by creating makeshift barricades, with one of them calling Hye-sun and bringing her in. Eventually it did not take long for riot police to act, believing the situation in Seoul to be a insurrection. It was around this time that martial law was declared without any reason, and the military was brought into Seoul by the end of Seoul Station.
South Korean military personnel evacuating civilians to a vessel
Sheer pandemonium began to spread all throughout South Korea, while at the same time the virus began to spread southwards insanely fast. When the South Korean government came to a realization about the situation, by the time they had responded it was already presumed to be late. According to Yon-suk, the CEO of a company called Stallion Express, the city of Daejeon was quarantined by the South Korean military, with all routes leading to the city being cut off, with his company being forced to reroute many of their buses away from the city, and the South Korean military was stationed at its train station along with riot police. It was during this time that survivors began spreading rumors, which were circulated online, that Busan, a large port city, was the only region that did not fall to the infected, and the military had established a quarantine zone in the region, and survivors were being evacuated out of Korea through Busan's ports. However, the South Korean military was only able to hold out in Busan for a short period of time, before it was overrun by zombies.
The South Korean government lost all control within one day, and collapsed after all major cities had been overrun. Remnants of the South Korean military and police were eventually evacuated along with most of South Korea's citizens through evacuation ships, such as the one seen in Peninsula. It wasn't long until the United States, NATO and the United Nations contained the outbreak in South Korea, letting nobody enter the country. North Korea, despite sharing a border with South Korea and the total nature of the virus, which had overrun the country within days, was able to stop the infection from arriving to Pyongyang and then further spreading from there, and if it wasn't for their efforts to contain the border it could have resulted in severe consequences.
Abandoned ships off the coast of Incheon
Aftermath[]
With the collapse of South Korea and the entire country being closed off from the rest of the world, the cities of South Korea eventually went into disrepair and became overgrown during the years before the events of Peninsula. Although the South Korean military was able to evacuate South Korean nationals, there were unfortunately many of them left behind after the outbreak started ravaging throughout the country. One of these groups was a rogue militia faction known as Unit 631, which were the remnants of a South Korean military unit, led by Captain Seo and Sergeant Hwang, and had already established a base and an underground fight club, which forces prisoners to take part in cruel survival games against zombies.
Trivia[]
- One of Seok-Woo's employees Kim mentioned that it was their company's fault for the outbreak of Korea, due to saving the bio company (the same company that had a leakage earlier in the movie) from bankruptcy.