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In recent weeks South Korea has been battered by torrential rains that have caused serious flooding, landslides and widespread property damage, killing 62 people. Stunning images of Seoul’s normally busy downtown streets filled with neck-deep water circulated around the world.

There are heavy rains every summer in South Korea, but this was something else. The storms are being regarded as evidence that the climate is changing and that the country must adjust to a hotter, wetter, more volatile reality.

The events of July have all but confirmed what South Koreans have anecdotally thought to be true for some time: summers are longer than ever before with higher temperatures and heavier rainfall. A recent study by the Korea Meteorological Administration shows that the number of days with rainfall of more than 30 millimeters per hour has doubled in the last three decades. During this year’s midsummer rainy season, the rainfall in the central and southern regions was two to three times the average of previous years.

South Korea’s National Science and Technology Council has significantly increased funds for weather prediction in next year’s budget. Seoul plans to install more than 80 kilometers of drainage pipes in the city by 2014, but only 5 kilometers have been completed. President Lee Myung-bak has called for the creation of a new task force to revise the country’s disaster response systems to better deal with severe weather.

South Korea has the benefit of a vocal citizenry that keeps government on its toes. When something goes wrong in this country, people tend to get angry and demand better from their elected leaders. As this is a functioning democracy, leaders need to respond to their constituents for their own survival.

Similarly to the occasion in November 2010 when the government was caught unprepared for North Korea’s shelling of Yeonpyeong Island, which led to expansions in military capability, the poor preparation for July’s flooding has triggered improvements in infrastructure for dealing with extreme weather.

Seoul’s administration, in particular the mayor, has faced criticism after flooding led to deaths and paralyzed the city. He has since pledged to install more effective drainage systems and reinforce homes in low-lying areas.

This signals a shift in priorities. Seoul had previously spent much of its time and money on projects to beautify the city, such as its World Design Capital and Han River improvement campaigns. It is likely that climate change will spur more policy realignments of this nature: away from the pursuit of the beautiful, towards the maintenance of basic functionality.

South Korea has long been active in responding to and preparing for the effects of climate change. In 2009, the South Korean government announced its “Low Carbon, Green Growth” plan, a broadly-based mandate of green growth initiatives that aimed to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent through 2020 from 2007 levels. Under the plan, the government expanded use of solar and wind energy, smart grids, and carbon capture and storage technology.

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak has stopped short of publicly attributing July’s weather to climate change. He said the government will “discuss how to re-establish the country’s anti-disaster guidelines because we may undergo an unexpected disaster next year, too,” according to his spokesman. This was a curious choice of words, implying flooding and landslides next year won’t be unexpected.

While the South is bracing itself for more flooding, North Korea is devastated perennially by floods that its substandard infrastructure cannot cope with. In 2006, floods are believed to have killed thousands of people. In 2007, floods took the lives of 454 people, left 156 missing and injured 4,351. It was estimated that the 2007 flooding destroyed 11 percent of the country’s rice and corn crops.

It happened again this July, and South Korea’s Ministry of Unification drew on media reports to estimate that 78,000 hectares of farmland had been flooded, several thousand homes destroyed, and industry and roads extensively damaged.

Despite frosty inter-Korean relations, the floods led to donations of medicines and other essentials from the South to the North. The donations were made through the Korean National Red Cross, possibly to camouflage the fact the South Korean government was behind the donations.

It’s a fairly safe bet that sooner or later all governments will need to change policies to deal with the new, more challenging circumstances brought on by climate change. The South Korean case could be instructive, as it is being hit especially hard by new weather patterns and responding with something other than denial.

 

Asia Sentinel

Steven Borowiec is a freelance writer living in Seoul.