Anchor: Monsoon seasonal downpours, which have been hitting South Korea's central region since Saturday, have claimed the lives of 15 people and displaced hundreds of others. The deluge is expected to continue throughout the week, expanding south to the Jeolla provinces and Jeju Island.
Choi You Sun reports.

Report: The Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters said as of 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, 15 people have died from torrential rains since Saturday, while eleven others remain missing.

The number of displaced persons has snowballed to one-thousand-610, with one-thousand-107, or nearly 70 percent, from the central Chungcheong provinces.

More than four-thousand-700 public and private facilities were damaged from the downpours, and over eight-thousand hectares of agricultural land submerged or buried.

Damage from the heavy rains is expected to further grow.

The Korea Meteorological Administration(KMA) said as of Wednesday morning, heavy rains of up to 40 millimeters per hour have begun to flood the southern regions, including Jeju Island.

Up to 200 millimeters of precipitation are in the forecast for Seoul, Gyeonggi Province, the western part of Gangwon Province and the Chungcheong regions until Friday, while up to 100 millimeters are expected in the south.

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun ordered the Interior Ministry to promptly review declaring the rain-hit Gyeonggi and Chungcheong provinces as special disaster areas. The declaration is expected as early as Thursday.

Calling for recovery efforts to begin as soon as the rain subsides, Chung urged officials to come up with fundamental measures to prevent damage from storms and floods in consideration of climate change.

Meanwhile, the Soyang River Dam, South Korea's largest multi-purpose dam, opened its floodgates for the first time in three years after water levels caused by torrential rain reached an upper limit on Wednesday.

Built in 1973, the dam has released water only 14 times so far, and the latest discharge is expected to have a significant impact on the water levels of the Han River in Seoul.

Choi You Sun, KBS World Radio News.