South Korea ranked 25th among the 34 member states of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in an evaluation of disaster management capability which was conducted by a local research institute last year.
The country's disaster management capability index stood at 0.467, the research center on competitiveness of governments at Seoul National University said in a report on Monday.
Japan, which used to suffer more natural disasters such as earthquakes and typhoons than South Korea, placed 11th with 0.580, 14 notches ahead of South Korea. Ireland took the top spot with 0.758.
The report said that South Korea lacks infrastructure required to stave off disasters.
It said the sinking of the ferry Sewol proved that the government lacked the ability to react quickly to a disaster.
It was also a "short-sighted" response that the country dissolved the Coast Guard for its failure to promptly respond to the Sewol ferry tragedy which left more than 300 people dead or missing.
South Korea established a national safety agency to replace the Coast Guard.
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