"Where is Santa Claus now?" As Christmas approaches, this familiar question from North America is expected to ring out in Korea this year.
According to the Associated Press and others on the 19th (local time), the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), jointly operated by the United States and Canada, will expand its "NORAD Tracks Santa" phone service worldwide for Christmas this year.
Previously, residents in North America could call a U.S. phone number to ask Santa's location, but starting this year, people in Korea can easily receive phone guidance through the website.
The Santa tracking website already supports nine languages, including English, French, Spanish and Korean. On the site, users can follow Santa's journey in real time as he takes off from the North Pole and crosses the Pacific, using maps and animations.
NORAD said there were 380,000 calls from around the world on Christmas Eve last year. This year, more than 1,000 volunteers are expected to be deployed to answer the phones.
NORAD records say Santa spent about 3 minutes and 45 seconds over the Korean Peninsula last year and delivered more than 20 million gifts to Korean children who had done good deeds. NORAD explains to children that it tracks Santa using the same radar, satellites and fighter escort systems used in real missions. The setup is that Rudolph's red nose, which leads Santa's sleigh, gives off a heat signal similar to a missile, which is picked up by detection satellites.
The event, which began in 1955, marks its 70th anniversary this year. At the time, a department store in Colorado Springs, United States, misprinted a "call Santa" number in a newspaper ad, and children's calls poured into the Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD), the predecessor to NORAD.
Air Force Col. Harry Shoup, the duty officer, answered a child on the phone, saying, "Ho ho ho! I'm Santa Claus. Have you been good?" During the Cold War, the tradition of "Santa tracking" began that way at a unit that kept watch on the skies with military radar.