Global loss due to disasters has been sharply increasing in conjunction with intensifying disaster complexity and magnitude. In the last decade, the Republic of Korea has also suffered a large number of casualties, uncountable physical damages and severe economic loss caused by various disasters. In particular, social disasters have been rapidly escalating. A series of recent social disasters, such as the Hydrofluoric Acid Leakage at the Gumi Chemical Plant in 2013 and the Mauna Resort Collapse

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... in Gyeongju and the Sewol Ferry Accident in 2014, show that the current disaster classification system, developed on the basis of hazard type, is neither comprehensive enough to deal with recently emerging disasters' increased complexity and amplified magnitude, nor adequate enough to improve the disaster response system. Therefore, there is a critical need to develop a new disaster classification system that bears in mind disaster characteristics and the role of disaster response organizations. This research analyzed major disasters in the last decade, focusing on what types and patterns of disaster damage occurred; how quickly disasters precipitated damage; and when and how Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters and Central Disaster Management Headquarters operated according to their roles. As a result, this paper proposed a new disaster classification system that can serve to lay the foundation for developing an advanced disaster response system, which takes the characteristics of various disasters into account.