Severe drought tends to occur in almost event five years in Korea. Drought responses have been well operated in close collaboration with the central, local government and the water management authorities on the institutional framework. However, the responses are usually post-activities to a drought event. The responses often face difficulties in operating and managing process due to an absence of a drought monitoring system and drought triggers. The objective of this study is to set up drought triggers through a time-spatial interpretation of drought index and the government responses during historical drought events. Drought triggers are divided into four categories: advisory, watch, warning and emergency stage. The range and drought-impacted area of an each stage in triggers have been addressed using drought index. Furthermore, a web-based drought monitoring system is illustrated.