South Korean president urges stronger heatwave response after 16 deaths
Temperatures in Yangsan, a southeastern inland city, hit 42.5°C on Sunday, the highest in 122 years of weather observations.
Senior citizens wait in line for free meals along the wall of a park in Seoul, South Korea on Aug 3, 2026, as the country is gripped by a nationwide heat wave. (Photo: EPA/Yonhap South Korea)
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SEOUL: South Korean President Lee Jae Myung urged authorities on Tuesday (Aug 4) to step up support for people affected by a record heatwave in the country, saying the death toll had risen to 16 and warning that extreme weather was becoming more frequent.
Speaking at a Cabinet meeting, Lee called on officials to take necessary measures to protect the daily lives of people and inspect power systems as demand for air conditioning surges.
“We need to make efforts for a fundamental overhaul of the national crisis system, since this extreme weather is becoming normal,” he said.
The nation’s weather agency said Yangsan, a southeastern inland city, recorded a temperature of 42.5°C on Sunday, the highest temperature measured in 122 years of weather observations.
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The Korea Meteorological Administration also issued its first-ever heatwave warning for parts of Seoul and neighbouring Gyeonggi on Monday, extending this to all of the capital on Tuesday.
The capital was under a “severe heatwave warning” Tuesday for the first time since the new category was introduced this year to alert citizens to increasing extremes.
Scientists say volatile weather events are becoming more intense and frequent owing to climate change, which is man-made.
HEATWAVE NOT EXPERIENCED EQUALLY
In Seoul’s affluent district of Gangnam, a severe heatwave has changed the currency of cool – access to air conditioning now defines the line between the haves and the have-nots.
20-year-old Jeong Eun-woo, who lives in one of Gangnam’s modern high-rises, has not found this summer particularly difficult.
“I’m keeping the air conditioning running full blast. I drink iced coffee and wear light clothes,” she said.
“So far, it’s been fine.”
But under million-dollar luxury apartments chilled by whirling air conditioners, tenants in one of Seoul’s last shanty towns suffer headaches in the savage heat.
“It’s so hot it’s hard to breathe,” said one resident of Guryong Village, a settlement of crude wood and tarpaulin shacks hosting around 160 households according to officials.
The woman – asking to be identified by her surname, Jeong, for privacy reasons – said she could not afford to cool the one-room home shared with her husband and disabled daughter.
Local authorities have converted a community centre into an emergency heat shelter and distributed 67 million won worth of cooling appliances to vulnerable households in Gangnam.
An analyst AFP spoke to said that not having access to air conditioning “puts their health into extremely grave, perhaps deadly danger” despite living in one of Asia’s richest cities.
On Tuesday the weather agency warned of “life-threatening heat”, and Seoul residents received mass texts advising them to stay inside.
But Baek Su-hyun said that offers no respite in Guryong.
“If it’s 35 degrees outside, it’s over 40 degrees inside,” said the 65-year-old.
Source: Agencies/rk/fh
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