한국 Lemmy 커뮤니티 / Korea Lemmy community

Tariff bomb!
Defense cost sharing
Raise threat!

An alliance?
Day robbery?

progressive party
Gyeongnam Provincial Party

Seosan City (South Korea) (AFP) – At least three people were killed and more than 1,000 evacuated Thursday after South Korea was hit by torrential rains, officials said, with one region pummelled by the most rainfall per hour since full records began

South Korea typically experiences monsoon rains in July, but three areas in the country's South Chungcheong province this week saw some of the heaviest hourly downpours on record, official weather data showed.

Three people were killed Thursday, the Ministry of Interior and Safety said, all in South Chuncheong province.

"As of 4pm local time at least three people have died today due to torrential rains," a Ministry of Interior and Safety official told AFP, adding that more than 1,000 people had been evacuated.

Police told AFP that one person was found inside a submerged vehicle, an elderly man was swept away near a stream, and another elderly man had been found dead in a flooded basement apartment after his son reported him missing.

The western Seosan area was hit by rainfall peaking at 114.9 millimetres (4.5 inches) per hour, "a level typically seen only once in 100 years", a weather agency official told AFP, adding that this was the highest rate since full records began in 1904.

The heavy rains were due to "warm and moist air flowing in along the edge of the North Pacific High, triggering strong atmospheric instability", the official added.

South Korean broadcasters ran videos of severe flooding in Seosan, with water swamping markets and apartment complexes, as well as submerging parked cars.

AFP reporters saw residents in Seosan struggling to clean up the aftermath of the floods on Thursday, with parking lots and shops still seen flooded with muddy water.

Choi Hee-jin, a nightclub owner, told AFP it had been "heartbreaking" to return to her business after the floods had swept through.

"Water had completely filled the club, and everything -- sofas, fridges, furniture, even computers -- was just floating around," Choi said.

"How do you think it feels to see that? Honestly, it felt like the world was collapsing. There are no words to describe it."

The national weather agency said in a statement that nearly 440 mm (about 17.3 inches) of rain had fallen in Seosan by 10:30 am on Thursday -- equivalent to 35 percent of the region's average annual rainfall.

"The water is just too deep and so much mud has been pushed in that I've already been working for about five hours trying to drain it all out," said Kim Min-seo, a 50-year-old restaurant worker, as she scrubbed the muddy floor.

"I'm still not done," she added.

Residents in Hongseong county, in South Chungcheong province, were ordered to "evacuate immediately to a safe location" early Thursday morning due to flooding from a nearby stream.

Several schools and nurseries in the county were also closed.

South Korea is regularly hit by flooding during the summer monsoon period, but is typically well-prepared and the death toll is usually relatively low.

Scientists say climate change has made weather events around the world more extreme and frequent.

South Korea also endured record-breaking rains and flooding in 2022, which left at least 11 people dead.

They included three people who died trapped in a Seoul basement apartment of the kind that became internationally known because of the Oscar-winning Korean film "Parasite".

The government said at the time that the rainfall was the heaviest since records began, blaming climate change for the extreme weather.

President Donald Trump said on Monday the U.S. would impose a 25% tariff on imports from Japan and South Korea beginning Aug. 1 as he unveiled the first two of an expected 12 letters to trading partners outlining the new levies they face.

Here is my yearly 'Complaining about humidity in Korea' post.

We asked 6 young parents about realistic, necessary costs of parenthood

• Voter turnout reaches 79.4 percent, 4th highest since 1987
• Lee's projected victory expected to turn page on political crisis that shook the nation for past 6 months

Today is election day and it's a special one for our family because my wife was able to vote for the first time here in Korea after getting her Korean citizenship last year.

I've been using Samsung Pay exclusively for the past 3 years in Korea so I don't need to take any card or cash with me, just my phone. It's very convinient, but now I can't pay for my coffee today.

Just sitting here in the library and reading the newspaper after the TV debate. At the same time my wife and her sister are debating who to vote for in the family chat.

It's a good feeling that democracy is still alive and well in Korea even though the 2 party system is not how I would have set it up.

I can't vote anyway, so at least I can hope for the best outcome next week.

The engravings on the rock face of Bangudae, located on the lower part of a cliff on a tributary of a river in Ulsan, were first discovered in 1971 and were designated as the country's National Treasure No. 285.

Bangudae was listed on the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List in 2011. Korea applied for the UNESCO listing of the petroglyphs, located in Ulsan, in January last year.

If registered, the petroglyphs will become Korea's 17th UNESCO World Heritage site.

We should have waited and moved to Busan for that :D

A growing black market for Hanwoo bull semen — used to breed Korea’s prized native cattle known for their premium beef — is drawing criticism from livestock producers, as government-supplied breeding material is being resold online at prices up to 40 times its original cost.

Despite being intended to improve the genetic quality of Korea’s premium cattle, the system is now drawing criticism for fueling speculation rather than supporting livestock development.

On online platforms like Naver’s used goods marketplace and KakaoTalk’s open chatrooms, hundreds of listings for Hanwoo semen can be found, with prices ranging from 100,000 to 500,000 won ($73 to $365) per dose — far above the official rates of 3,000 to 10,000 won.

Some sellers even offer bulk deals, listing 100 doses for as much as 35 million won. With no expiration date, semen collected from bulls slaughtered over a decade ago is still being resold.

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/21579890

Massive wildfires that killed at least 32 people and scorched an area nearly double the size of Seoul in late March could become more common under human-driven climate change, scientists warn.

archived (Wayback Machine):

• Mongabay article
• study cited: summary and full PDF

A South Korean soldier at the inter-Korean border accidentally fired a machine gun toward North Korea last week, prompting the military to air broadcasts to notify the North of the mistake, military officials said Sunday.

The accident happened at around 6:00 a.m. Wednesday when the soldier mistakenly fired a single round from the K6 heavy machine gun from a guard post inside the Demilitarized Zone separating the two Koreas in Cheorwon County, about 70 kilometers north of Seoul, according to the officials.

Lee Jae-myung, former chairman of the liberal Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), secured the party’s nomination for the June 3 presidential election, officially setting the stage for his third presidential bid, Sunday.

The 61-year-old secured the nomination with 89.77 percent support in a weighted system, with 50 percent of the decision based on party members' votes and 50 percent on public opinion poll results.

Lee’s commanding lead left the party's two other candidates far behind. Gyeonggi Province Gov. Kim Dong-yeon followed with 6.87 percent, while former South Gyeongsang Province Gov. Kim Kyoung-soo garnered 3.36 percent.