SEOUL (AFP) – South Korea’s president vowed on Monday to “completely overhaul” the country’s approach to extreme weather from climate change, after at least 40 people were killed by recent flooding and landslides during monsoon rains.
Rescue workers waded through thick mud as they drained a flooded underpass in central Cheongju, searching for more victims after vehicles were trapped in the tunnel by flash floods, the Interior Ministry said, with nine people still missing nationwide.
South Korea is at the peak of its summer monsoon season, and days of torrential rain have caused widespread flooding and landslides, with rivers bursting their banks, and reservoirs and dams overflowing. More rain is forecast in the coming days.
“This kind of extreme weather event will become commonplace – we must accept climate change is happening, and deal with it,” President Yoon Suk-yeol said during an emergency response meeting on Monday.
The idea that extreme weather linked to climate change “is an anomaly and can’t be helped needs to be completely overhauled”, he said, calling for “extraordinary determination” to improve the country’s preparedness and response. South Korea will “mobilise all available resources” including the military and police to help with rescue efforts,
he said.
“The rainy season is not over yet, and the forecast is now that there will be torrential rain again tomorrow,” he added.
Following the meeting, Yoon, who returned from an overseas trip early Monday, travelled to Yecheon in North Gyeongsang province – one of the hardest hit villages, where more than a third of houses were damaged in landslides and two people remain missing. Dressed in a green jacket, often donned by top officials during public emergencies, Yoon was briefed by officials as he walked past piles of fallen trees and relief workers shovelling mud.
“I’ve never seen something like this in my life, hundreds of tonnes of rocks rolling down from the mountain,” Yoon told the villagers.
“I’ll do everything I can to restore the village,” he added.
The majority of the casualties – including 19 of the dead and eight of the missing – were from North Gyeongsang province, and were largely due to massive landslides in the mountainous area that engulfed houses with people inside.
On Monday, the South Korean government and police launched separate enquiries into the fatal flooding of the underpass in Cheongju, some 112 kilometres south of Seoul.
It flooded early on Saturday when a nearby river overflowed and an embankment collapsed, leaving more than 10 vehicles, including a bus, trapped inside.
Yoon said on Monday that the mismanagement of danger zones had led to the accident. Preemptive evacuations and road closures were the “basic principles of preventing the loss of lives in disaster response”, he added.