Nationwide civil defense exercises will resume in May for the first time in six years.

The announcement was made during a session of the central integrated defense council presided over by President Yoon Suk Yeol on Wednesday, the first time in seven years that a sitting president led the meeting.

The drills reportedly coincide with the government's determination that the public defense system has become lax in the absence of the training during the past five years.

Mobile phone texts will be included in the drills' alert system, which until now has been issued through sirens and television captions.

The participants also discussed establishing and supplementing emergency shelters in the face of North Korea's advanced nuclear and missile threats, as well as preparing and training for an integrated response to terrorism and cyber threats.