South Korea's Lee declares disaster zones after floods
SEOUL (Reuters) -South Korea's President Lee Jae Myung declared six districts as special disaster zones on Tuesday after days of torrential rains left a trail of destruction in parts of the country.
The wet weather has now subsided, though media reports said heavy rainfall was drenching parts of North Korea.
Around 19 people have died and nine were still missing in South Korea as of Tuesday morning, while 2,549 people were still displaced, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety said.
Around 3,776 facilities, including homes, shops and factories, needing to be cleared of water, debris and earth, the ministry added.
President Lee's declaration of special disaster zones - including in Gapeyeong on the outskirts of Seoul - gave authorities access to emergency administrative and financial support to aid victims.
He earlier told public officials to "spare no effort" in the search for missing people.
The president's approval rating slipped to 62.2% from 64.6% in a survey conducted last week during the rains, according to pollster Realmeter.
Solve the daily Crossword
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
9 minutes ago
- Yahoo
UAE summer temperatures surge near record highs after hottest ever spring
UAE summer temperatures surge near record highs after hottest ever spring By AbdelHadi Ramahi (Reuters) -The United Arab Emirates is facing surging temperatures this summer after its hottest spring ever, with temperatures soaring close to record highs at the start of August, according to data from the National Centre of Meteorology (NCM). The extreme heat in the Gulf country is part of a broader global trend, as rising temperatures continue to reach new heights. Last year was the hottest ever recorded worldwide when global temperatures exceeded 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial era levels. The temperature surge followed the UAE's hottest April and May on record, the NCM said. On August 1, the temperature in the desert town of Sweihan hit 51.8 C (125.2 degrees Fahrenheit), the highest since 2021, the NCM said. This was just shy of the UAE's all-time high of 52.1 C (125.8 F) set in July 2002, also in Sweihan. Inland areas repeatedly experienced daily temperatures above 50 C in June and July, while seaside urban centres like Dubai and Abu Dhabi consistently posted highs in the mid-forties. The NCM expects the rest of the summer to remain hotter than usual, forecasting August temperatures 0.25 C to 0.5 C above average. While the NCM has warned residents to limit sun exposure and avoid being outdoors during peak hours, such precautions aren't always possible for those in outdoor industries, like construction and agriculture. "We are whining while sitting in the air-condition... they (outdoor labourers) are working actually 24/7 in this heat," said Yasir Shahad, a visitor from Australia. Solve the daily Crossword
Newsweek
11 minutes ago
- Newsweek
South Korea Makes Gesture of Reconciliation to North Korea
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. South Korea has started to dismantle loudspeakers along the border with North Korea that broadcast anti-Pyongyang messaging. The move was initiated by the new Lee Jae Myung administration in Seoul as part of a series of conciliatory gestures aimed at de-escalating tensions on the peninsula. As of Monday, North Korea had yet to respond by removing its own front-line loudspeakers. Newsweek reached out to the North Korean Foreign Ministry for comment. Why It Matters South Korea's move comes 14 months after speakers along the border were reactivated to broadcast K-pop music and anti-North Korean rhetoric. This was in response to Pyongyang's provocative trash balloon campaigns, which carried waste across the border, causing chaos in the south. Their dismantling comes amid efforts by the Lee administration to pivot away from a hardline stance taken under the previous government of Yoon Suk Yeol, who was removed from office in April over his ill-fated imposition of martial law. A South Korean soldier is seen in a watchtower at the border with North Korea, divided by the Imjin River in Paju, north of Seoul, on June 5, 2025. A South Korean soldier is seen in a watchtower at the border with North Korea, divided by the Imjin River in Paju, north of Seoul, on June 5, To Know South Korea's military began dismantling fixed loudspeakers along the border with North Korea on Monday in a move that follows the government's June 11 decision to stop anti-North broadcasts. This decision came just a week after Lee took office and six months after Yoon plunged South Korea into a political crisis when he sent troops to parliament to stop lawmakers voting down his declaration of martial law. South Korea's defense ministry said that the military had started on Monday to remove 24 fixed loudspeakers installed near the military demarcation line (MDL) in a process that is expected to take several days. Since the end of last year, 16 mobile units have already been out of operation. The defense ministry said the move was aimed at reducing tensions between the north and the south and would not affect military readiness, South Korean outlet JoongAng Daily reported. There had been no consultation with Pyongyang, which as of Monday had yet to remove its own front-line loudspeakers. South Korea's presidential office said Lee made the decision given the absence of recent major provocations by North Korea and aimed to de-escalate military confrontation and open the door to rebuilding mutual trust. However, Pyongyang has rejected that it would soften its stance with the South, and experts have warned that dismantling the loudspeakers may hamper the South's ability to respond credibly to future provocations, including floating trash balloons over the border. What People Are Saying South Korea's defense ministry said it has begun "removing loudspeakers from today. This is a practical measure to help reduce tensions between the North and the South, taken within a scope that does not affect our military readiness." Kim Yo-jong, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's sister and a senior party official: "No matter how desperately the Lee Jae Myung government they do all sorts of righteous things to attract our attention and receive international attention, there can be no change in our state's understanding of the enemy." What Happens Next South Korean media reported that the dismantling of the speakers could help revive the 2018 inter-Korean military agreement, which called for a halt to hostile acts within a 5-kilometer (3.1-mile) zone around the MDL, which was one of Lee's campaign pledges. However, critics said that Seoul's action could play into Pyongyang's hands as the presence of the loudspeakers made them one of the few ways to pressure North Korea, which last week rejected any softening of its position toward the South.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Ukraine bets big on interceptor drones as low-cost air shield
By Max Hunder DNIPROPETROVSK REGION, Ukraine (Reuters) -When President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said at the end of last month that Ukraine needs $6 billion to fund the production of interceptor drones, setting a target of 1,000 a day, he had his reasons. Having already reshaped the battlefield by doing work once reserved for long-range missiles, field artillery and human intelligence, drones are now fighting Russian drones - a boon for Ukraine's dwindling stock of air defence missile systems. In the last two months, just one Ukrainian charity supplying aerial interceptor drones says its devices have downed around 1,500 of the drones that Russia has been sending to reconnoitre the battlefield or to bomb Ukraine's towns and cities. INTERCEPTORS HELP TO SAVE VALUABLE MISSILE STOCK Most importantly, such interceptors have the potential to be a cheap, plentiful alternative to using Western or Soviet-made air defence missiles, depleted by allies' inability, or reluctance, to replenish them. Colonel Serhiy Nonka's 1,129th air defence regiment, which started using them a year ago to ram and blow up enemy drones, estimated that they could down a Russian spotter drone at about a fifth of the cost of doing so with a missile. As a result, the depth to which these enemy reconnaissance drones can fly behind Ukrainian lines has decreased sharply, Nonka said. Some estimates put the interceptors' speed at over 300 kph (190 mph), although the precise figures are closely guarded. Other units are using interceptors to hit the long-range Shahed "kamikaze" drones that Russia launches at Kyiv and other cities, sometimes downing dozens a night, according to Zelenskiy. In the three and a half years since Russia invaded Ukraine at scale, drones have gone from an auxiliary tool to one of the primary means of waging war for both sides. To chase them down, interceptor drones need to be faster and more powerful than those that have already revolutionised long-range precision strikes and aerial reconnaissance. INTERCEPTOR DRONES TO BECOME UBIQUITOUS Like the First-Person View drones that now dominate the battlefield, interceptor drones are flown by a pilot on the ground through the video feed from an onboard camera. 'When we started to work (with these drones), the enemy would fly at 800 or a thousand metres," the officer who spearheaded their adoption by the 1,129th regiment, Oleksiy Barsuk. "Now it's three, four or five thousand – but their (camera) zoom is not infinite.' Most of the regiment's interceptor drones are provided by military charities that crowdfund weapons and equipment through donations from civilians. Taras Tymochko, from the largest of these, Come Back Alive, said it now supplies interceptors to 90 units. Since the project began a year ago, the organisation says over 3,000 drones have been downed by equipment it provided, nearly half of them in the last two months. However, such interceptors are still no match for incoming missiles or the fast jet-powered attack drones that Moscow has recently started deploying. The organisation reports the value of the downed Russian craft at $195 million, over a dozen times the cost of the drones and equipment handed over under the project. Sam Bendett, adjunct senior fellow at the Centre for a New American Security, said Russian forces were complaining about the effectiveness of large Ukrainian interceptors, but were also developing their own. 'We're starting to see more and more videos of various types of interceptions by both sides ... I think this is going to accelerate and it's going to become more and more ubiquitous in the coming weeks." Solve the daily Crossword
