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A moment magnitude 3.1 earthquake occurred in the Seoul metropolitan region (SMR), Korea, on 9 February 2010. The unexpected shaking attracted much attention and raised concerns about the seismic hazards and risks in the SMR, which was regarded as an area safe from any earthquake hazard. The SMR has a population of 25 million and is one of the largest metropolitan areas in the world. A shakemap for a scenario earthquake with magnitude 6.5 and focal depth 12 km implies that the SMR will be exposed to serious risk because of its large population and the high vulnerability of its buildings. Although the instrumentally recorded earthquakes discussed in this article cannot be classified as major events, they should not be discounted as insignificant. Considering the low seismicity, micro-earthquakes below the magnitude of a conventional seismic network can achieve would be used to estimate background information in the evaluation of earthquake hazards and risks.