Millions of South Korean students will participate in an earthquake drill Tuesday (May 27) in the wake of a devastating quake that recently killed over 40,000 people, including many students, in China's southeast, officials said Sunday.

The students died while attending classes in poorly constructed buildings that were easily demolished. Some analysts, however, also attribute the deaths to poor disaster preparedness training for students.

According to the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, a 40-minute drill will be held in schools on Tuesday, with 8.2 million faculty and students ranging from kindergarten to high school participating.

The drill was organized following China's recent earthquake, which killed over 40,000 people and left thousands more missing.

Korea is said to be a relatively earthquake-free zone.

The strongest recent earthquake in the country was recorded in 2004, when a 5.2-magnitude quake hit waters 80 km east of the city of Uljin in North Gyeongsang Province. No casualties were reported at that time.