Welcome to Arirang News.
This is Key Kim
And we start with our top headlines at this hour.
1.
The damage is mounting up due to the heavy downpours that have slammed South Korea, especially Seoul and the central region.
According to the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters as of six AM on Friday, 17 people have died since the start of August and 10 are unaccounted for.
This does not include the one death and 5 people still missing after a private inflatable boat and a patrol boat capsized Thursday as they attempted to rescue crew on a police boat at a dam in Gangwon-do Province.
South Korea's Prime Minister offered his condolences to the victims and the families and urged the authorities to do all they can.
In the last seven days, around two-thousand five-hundred people have been affected, mostly in terms of property damage.
In total, more than 47-hundred people have been evacuated, though some of these people have now returned home.
More than 61-hundred public and private facilities have been
damaged mainly due to flooding and landslides.
More than 19-hundred houses have been flooded, as have roughly 81-hundred hectares of farmland, and around one thousand roads and bridges have been damaged.
South Korea is expected to get up to 300 millimeters of rain until Saturday, accompanied by wind, thunder and lightning.
The South Korean government on Friday declared the seven-most severely damaged areas as "Special Disaster Zones", including Anseong city in Gyeonggi-do Province, Cheorwon city in Gangwon-do Province and parts of Chungcheong-do Province...to free up emergency relief funds.
2.
Meanwhile in North Korea, leader Kim Jong-un has paid a visit to a village in (황해북도)Hwanghaebuk-do Province,... one of the regions hit hard by the recent floods.
The North's state-run Korean Central News Agency said Kim went to parts of (은파)Eunpa County,... and ordered officials to distribute his own reserve stocks of grain to help people there.
The report didn't say when we went, but it was likely on Thursday when there were heavy rain warnings in effect.
Kim also ordered officials to supply bedding, daily necessities and medicine,... and mobilize the army to help with reconstruction.
The KCNA said nearly 730 homes and 600 hectares of rice-growing land were flooded,... and more than 700 homes were destroyed.
It said no casualties were reported.
3.
South Korea announced on Friday that it has successfully developed a prototype of an advanced radar system for its fighter jets -- the Active Electronically Scanned Array.
The achievement came after four years of research by the Agency for Defense Development and Hanwha Systems, and only uses domestic technology.
The advanced radar can identify objects at multiple angles, and can simultaneously detect up to 10 objects from 50 to 60 miles away.
It will be installed on the prototype KF-X fighter jets next year for ground and air trials.
4.
Some 12-thousands of South Korean trainee doctors went on strike today... protesting against a government plan to boost the number of medical students in the country, arguing it would be a poor use of additional funding for the sector.
The student doctors say extra funding would be better spent improving the salaries of existing trainees, which would encourage them to move out of Seoul to rural areas where more professionals are needed.
Prime Minister Chung Se-kyun called for the group to return for talks instead of putting the health of patients at risk.
However, major hospitals have reported no significant disruptions after preemptively drafting in alternative health workers.
5.
The Japanese company Nippon Steel has filed an immediate appeal in South Korea against a court-ordered seizure of its local assets.
The assets, if seized, would be used to compensate South Koreans subjected to forced labor by the company during World War Two.
The filing of the appeal by Nippon Steel was confirmed by the Daegu District Court this morning.
The seizure order was set to take effect next week, so this postpones the order, giving the company another chance to make its case.
Japan has indicated that it will retaliate if the seizure goes ahead, which could mean tariffs, financial sanctions or other measures.
Moving to weather forecast,
Rain has eased temporarily in central regions, but right now, in Chungcheong-do Province and the south, heavy rain of 20 to 30 millimeters per hour is falling.
Rain clouds are set to move to the upper parts of the country tomorrow. As a result, we’ll be seeing up to 100 millimeters in central regions, including Seoul. In lower parts of Gyeonggi-do, Gangwon-do and Chungcheong-do provinces, and parts of the South, up to 300 millimeters are expected. In Jeollanam-do and Gyeongsangnam-do provinces, up to 150 millimeters are in forecast.
For tomorrow morning, Seoul will kick off at 22 degrees Celsius. Daejeon, Gwangju, Gyeongju, and Busan at 24 degrees.
The current temperatures are:
_______ degrees in Seoul
_______ degrees in Suwon
_______ degrees in Daegu
_______ degrees in Busan
And _______ degrees on Jejudo Island
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