South Korea - The Korea Times

Torrential rains leave 17 dead, 11 missing

Torrential rains pounded Korea for five consecutive days, leaving 17 people dead and 11 missing and damaging nearly 2,000 public facilities nationwide, according to the Ministry of the Interior and Safety and the National Fire Agency on Sunday. In response, President Lee Jae Myung instructed officials to swiftly assess the flood damage and expedite the designation of special disaster zones, presidential spokesperson Kang Yu-jung said later in the day. Among the 17 confirmed fatalities, 10 deaths occurred in Sancheong, South Gyeongsang Province, where a rare countywide evacuation order was issued on Saturday. Two more deaths were reported in Gapyeong, Gyeonggi Province, Sunday, where search and rescue operations remain underway. One fatality was reported in Gwangju, while the remaining deaths included one in Osan, Gyeonggi Province, two in Seosan and one in Dangjin — both in South Chungcheong Province. One person remained unaccounted for in Gwangju, while four were missing in Sancheong, five in Gapyeong and one in Pocheon, Gyeonggi Province. The number of casualties may rise as search a

Jul 20, 2025By Jung Da-hyun

Torrential rains leave 17 dead, 11 missing

Lee orders swift declaration of special disaster zones over rain damage

President Lee Jae Myung instructed the government Sunday to find ways to swiftly designate areas hit hard by recent heavy rains as special disaster zones, his spokesperson said. Lee also called for a swift survey of the scale of damage from the rain and landslides that began across the nation last Wednesday, Kang Yu-jung said in a message to the press. Special disaster zones are entitled to government support for damage recovery and victims relief. As of 11 a.m., 14 people were killed and 12 others were missing due to the heavy rains, according to the government and the National Fire Agency. The government launched an interagency recovery support team earlier in the day. "The interior ministry, other relevant ministries and the affected local governments will fully mobilize all available resources and carry out swift emergency restoration work," Interior Minister Yun Ho-jung said during a meeting of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters in the central city of Sejong, saying the government will shift its focus from responding to the rains to recovering from the damag

Jul 20, 2025By Yonhap

Lee orders swift declaration of special disaster zones over rain damage

10 killed, 9 missing in heavy rains, landslides

Ten people have been killed and nine have gone missing in the heavy rains and landslides that began across Korea four days ago, the government said Sunday. The data from the interior ministry and the National Fire Agency, as of 5 a.m. Sunday, also showed that a large portion of the toll — six dead and seven missing — occurred in the southern county of Sancheong. The other deaths occurred in Osan, Gyeonggi Province; Seosan, South Chungcheong Province; and Dangjin, South Chungcheong. Two of the nine unaccounted for were reported missing in the southwestern city of Gwangju. Firefighting officials said rescue work was still under way in Sancheong, which could lead to a change in the toll. A total of 58 people have been rescued from the county alone. Torrential rains have slammed the nation since Wednesday, with Sancheong receiving an accumulated 793.5 millimeters of rain. The adjacent county of Hapcheon has received 699 mm, while the nearby county of Hadong has received 621.5 mm. Authorities have registered 1,920 cases of flooded roads, soil loss and destroyed public facilities, and 2,234

Jul 20, 2025By Yonhap

10 killed, 9 missing in heavy rains, landslides

Is Korea’s ‘once-in-a-century’ rain now happening every year? Experts say yes

What experts describe as a once-in-100-to-200-year rainfall event has left parts of Korea reeling, with record-breaking precipitation turning the unusual into the new normal. On July 17 alone, the city of Seosan in South Chungcheong Province was hit with 438.9 millimeters of rain, while Gwangju recorded 426.4 millimeters — far exceeding the region’s average rainfall for the entire month of July. In Seosan and the nearby city of Hongseong, around 100 millimeters fell within just one hour during the early morning, shattering the 30-millimeter-per-hour threshold typically used to define a heavy downpour. Experts say climate change is behind the intensifying and increasingly frequent rainstorms affecting the Korean Peninsula, with once-rare extreme weather events now occurring annually in many regions. The latest flooding was caused by a phenomenon known as a "training convective system," in which a narrow band of cumulonimbus clouds forms between two different air masses. This long, thin band hovered over parts of the country, dumping vast amounts of moisture. Southwesterly winds trave

Jul 19, 2025By Hankookilbo

Is Korea’s ‘once-in-a-century’ rain now happening every year? Experts say yes

Death toll rises sharply as heavy rains trigger deadly landslides in Sancheong

Torrential rains that slammed Korea for four days have left at least nine people dead and several others missing, after a downpour triggered deadly landslides in the southern Sancheong County on Saturday, officials said. A 60-something person was found in cardiac arrest after a landslide triggered by heavy rain engulfed homes in a village in Sancheong, South Gyeongsang Province, on Saturday morning. In a separate incident, a landslide in another village in Sancheong subsequently killed two others at home, while a deadly mudslide swept through homes in a different village in the county shortly after noon, leaving two people dead and one missing, according to fire authorities. Also in Sancheong, a person was found in cardiac arrest around noon after his home was inundated by heavy rain. Sancheong County issued an alert urging all residents to evacuate to safety. In the nearby city of Miryang, also in South Gyeongsang Province, a driver in his 60s was killed after floodwaters swept away his car. Authorities said five people had been confirmed dead, two were missing and two others were found

Jul 19, 2025By Yonhap

Death toll rises sharply as heavy rains trigger deadly landslides in Sancheong

Heavy rain damages over 13,000 hectares of farmland in Korea

The total area of farmland damaged by the torrential rains that pounded South Korea over the past two days is equivalent to 18,000 soccer fields, the agriculture ministry said Friday. A total of 13,033 hectares of farmland were estimated to have been submerged by the heavy downpours as of Thursday, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. The central region of South Chungcheong Province was hit the hardest, accounting for more than 95 percent of the damaged area, while over 12,000 hectares, or more than 80 percent of the damaged land, were rice paddies. As for livestock, 56 cattle, 200 pigs and 600,000 chickens have been killed due to the heavy rain. With damage snowballing amid continued heavy downpours, Agriculture Minister Song Mi-ryung convened an emergency meeting Friday to discuss recovery measures. The ministry plans to work with related agencies and local governments to prevent further damage, while speeding up damage assessments, so that those affected can quickly receive insurance payments and subsidies.

Jul 18, 2025By Yonhap

Heavy rain damages over 13,000 hectares of farmland in Korea

South Chungcheong Province reels from 'once-in-a-century' rainfall

Torrential rainfall battered the Chungcheong region in central Korea, killing at least four people, inundating hundreds of homes and farms, triggering landslides and forcing more than 1,300 residents to evacuate. Seosan, South Chungcheong Province, was deluged with more than 400 millimeters of rain over just half a day on Thursday, including 114.9 millimeters in a single hour. The national weather agency described the downpour as a “once-in-a-century” event. Those regions, as well as other parts of the country, are forecast to receive more rainfall through Friday. According to the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA), Seosan saw 438.5 millimeters of rain early Thursday between midnight and 10 a.m., which is the largest daily amount since weather observation began in the city in January 1968. The previous record was 274.5 millimeters on Aug. 2, 1999. The city received 114.9 millimeters of rain in a one-hour period starting from 1:46 a.m. Streams feeding into the Geum River were among the hardest hit. In Yesan, all four monitoring stations along Sapgyo Creek issued flood warnings,

Jul 17, 2025By Lee Hae-rin

South Chungcheong Province reels from 'once-in-a-century' rainfall

Growing movement in Korea challenges tradition of bullfighting

A campaign to end traditional bullfighting in Korea is gaining momentum, driven by growing public concern and pressure from animal rights activists, as several municipalities move to withdraw funding for such events in response to evolving societal values. As of Tuesday, an online petition submitted to the National Assembly calling for a total ban on bullfighting had garnered more than 45,000 signatures — just 5,000 short of the threshold required for formal parliamentary review. “Cattle used in bullfighting suffer injuries and stress from training and collisions. Some suffer broken horns or internal injuries during fights and are left abandoned after the games,” the petitioner wrote. “Bulls were not born to fight. There is no reason they should be forced to ram into each other for human entertainment.” While the Animal Protection Act prohibits injuring animals for gambling or entertainment, bullfighting remains exempt, as the law does not apply to activities designated as “folk games.” In recent years, however, animal rights activists have increasingly challenged the ratio

Jul 16, 2025By Jung Min-ho

Growing movement in Korea challenges tradition of bullfighting

Singaporean environmentalists visit Korea to study recycling, waste management

A group of Singaporean environmental activists visited Korea last month to learn about recycling and waste management while participating in cleaning campaigns on Mount Gwanak and around Hongik University. On June 21, the group visited the Mapo Resource Recovery Facility in western Seoul, near Haneul Park. The facility receives municipal solid waste from five of Seoul’s districts. This visit to Korea was the first international outreach campaign of Stridy, a Singapore-based non-governmental organization that collects garbage and environmental data around the world under the motto of “Making a Cleaner, Kinder World, One at a Time.” During the visit, Stridy founder Marcel Smits highlighted that Korea is an outlier in that it captures 98 percent of its food waste in a separate collection stream. The waste is then processed into compost, animal feed or biogas. “South Korea, several decades ago, decided to take a top-down view to eradicate landfills and reform its waste management systems,” Smits said. “Incinerators with energy recapture were built, but more importantly, consumers

Jul 16, 2025By Bereket Alemayehu

Singaporean environmentalists visit Korea to study recycling, waste management

Korea University successfully concludes international education program for climate change

Korea University successfully concluded an international education program on climate change and its possible solutions, the university said Tuesday. Bringing together 130 scholars and students from 35 universities across six continents, the school hosted the inaugural Climate Corps Summer School from July 7 to 12 to explore cross-border collaboration in addressing climate change. The six-day program, which ran during a time of record-breaking heat waves across the country, emphasized actionable solutions and international cooperation for climate resilience. Under the theme of “Cross-Border Collaboration for Climate Crisis,” the event marked the first official program of the Climate Corps, an international college alliance initiated by Korea University. For this year’s program, the United Nations Development Program Seoul Policy Center joined as a partner to contribute to its academic and policy depth. Participants, including 23 researchers from member institutions, selected one of several pressing issues — ranging from urban resilience, carbon capture and storage and energy poli

Jul 15, 2025By Jhoo Dong-chan

Environment & Animals