Seoul Korean

Using a plastic bowl, Ha In-sik bailed water out of his lower ground apartment in the low-income housing district of Sillim in southwestern Seoul on ...

He said the only help the government had offered was for temporary shelter at a gymnasium, which he rejected. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com President Yoon Suk-yeol visited Sillim a day later. "I've got no money, nothing. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com

Two women and a teenager died in one of the tiny flats, which featured in the Oscar-winning film.

The city will give owners of such flats 20 years to convert them for non-residential uses such as storage or parking lots. On Wednesday, officials said that the city would consult with the government to revise the building law to completely ban the use of basement or semi-basement spaces for residential purposes, according to a Yonhap report. The tragedy has renewed attention on income inequality and the dangers of living in the semi-underground flats - or banjiha - which are known for cheap rents and poor living conditions.

SEOUL: South Korea needs to take pre-emptive measures to combat climate change after the nation's capital Seoul was battered by record-breaking downpours ...

"Many roads in Seoul do not have proper drainage systems to efficiently collect and remove water runoff in the event of heavy rain or floods. "The neighbourhood near Gangnam subway station is about 10m lower in altitude than surrounding areas, causing the area to flood very quickly. Another 4,300 people from more than 2,000 households across the country have also been temporarily evacuated. It is regrettable that the importance of ensuring sufficient investment in such infrastructure is often overlooked by the authorities," Cho said. Disaster management experts said the unprecedented flooding occurred because the drainage system in Seoul could not handle the sudden increase in volume and they urged the city government to scale up its infrastructure to cope with similar situations in the future. The Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters said six deaths were reported in Seoul, three in Gyeonggi Province and two in Gangwon Province while three of the eight unaccounted for were from Seoul.

At least four residents were found dead after being trapped in submerged semi-basement homes. Read more at straitstimes.com.

The income gap between the top 20-percent of households and the bottom-most group has widened since 2019, a report released by Shinhan Bank showed in April. As of 2020, about 5 per cent or 200,000 homes in the city were basement or half-basement flats, according to the Seoul Metropolitan Government. Inequality in South Korea, Asia's fourth-biggest economy, has worsened in recent years, especially after the coronavirus pandemic.

After at least four people drowned in basement homes during the worst storm to lash Seoul in more than a century, South Korea's capital city is planning to ...

The extreme flooding in Seoul highlighted South Korea's lack of preparation for natural disasters – or climate change in general.

The opposition Democratic Party currently has 171 of the 300 seats in the National Assembly, while Yoon’s People Power Party has just 109. At a critical juncture where the country lies utterly underprepared for natural disasters, only long-term precautionary actions and a carbon neutrality objective will save Koreans from future downpours. The president’s poor emergency management hastened the arrival of his lame-duck session – just three months after his inauguration. In comparison to the previous Moon administration, which had a nationwide approval rating of roughly 46 percent, Yoon’s current approval rating is tepid at best. The president’s initial approval rating of 52 percent in May is currently hanging around 20 percent, while his disapproval rating reached a record-breaking 70.1 percent on August 8. Reversing the previous carbon neutrality scheme exposes the Korean Peninsula to new climate challenges. This was not the first time Seoul has been subjected to catastrophic rain. The Yoon administration intends to scale down South Korea’s earlier full commitment to attaining carbon neutrality by 2050 and to reduce the proportion of renewable energy. On August 9, the Korean word for “ anarchy” was shared over 10,000 times on Twitter, calling into question the leadership vacuum early in the disaster. Expensive shops and luxurious residences in Gangnam, South Korea’s wealthiest area, were not spared from the natural disaster. Local reports indicated that the flooding had killed at least eight people by the morning of August 9, a day after the downpour began. Upon taking office in May, Yoon relocated the presidential house from the Blue House to Yongsan, which is further away from the office.

The heaviest rain in Seoul in 115 years has spurred the South Korean capital to revive a $1.15 billion plan to improve drainage after floods exposed how ...

Warmer weather increases moisture levels in the air, leading to more intense rainfall. "It was indeed an extreme weather. The city's development meant increased pavement and impermeable surfaces, leading to higher runoff and more flooding. The downpour, which began on Monday and shifted southwards on Wednesday, knocked out power, caused landslides and flooded roads and subways. That has disasterous implications for low-lying areas like Gangnam, as these bouts of extreme weather are becoming increasingly common. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com

Properties seen in Oscar-winning film to be curbed after three people drown in South Korean capital.

Banjiha appeared in 1970 after the government made basement floors mandatory in new construction projects. Well over half of the country’s banjiha are in the capital, where soaring property prices were a key issue in this year’s presidential election. “People live underground but want to believe that they are above the ground because they have a moment when sunlight comes into their room,” he said. “I’ve got no money, nothing,” said Ha, 50, who used a plastic bowl to scoop the water from his lower-ground apartment. Two sisters in their 40s and a girl identified as the younger sister’s 13-year-old daughter drowned on Monday as the heaviest rainfall to hit Seoul for 115 years sent torrents of water along streets, inundating apartments and subway stations. Their bodies were found after police and firefighters had finished draining the apartment, it added.