5 people killed after torrential rains pound South Korea this week

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Torrential rains that lashed South Korea this week have led to the deaths of five people and left nine others missing, the government said Saturday. Six people were also injured and 1,124 others rendered homeless because of heavy rain that started battering the country Wednesday, the National Emergency Management Agency said in a statement. On Friday, three people died after their houses were pounded by landslides, it said. A day earlier, two South Korean soldiers were killed in a mudslide near their army base in Yanggu, about 180 kilometers east of the capital Seoul. The rainfall also damaged or flooded about 620 houses across South Korea, and 3,010 acres of farmland was inundated. Dongducheon, a city just north of Seoul, received about 35 centimeters of rain since Wednesday, and major cities in Gangwon were pelted with about 28 centimeters, the emergency agency said.