"긴급사태가 발생했어요."

Translation:An emergency happened.

February 3, 2018

An urgent situation arose

...has arisen?

Always thought of "emergency" as a critical situation which needs immediate action.

"urgency" on the other hand implies an important situation which needs swift (not necessarily immediate) action.

Wouldn't 비상사태 ... be a more accurate word to use for this translation.

Definitely.

비상사태 - "Red Alert" (Highest trauma level/full emergency) - Immediate action required.

긴급상태 - "Orange Alert" (Severe trauma level/Significant emergency) - Early attention required.

However from the "highlight", the focus here is on the verb 발생하다, occur/arise etc.

緊急事態가 發生했어요.