Typhoon Likely To Hit Korea In Midweek

SEOUL, Aug. 19 (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 19th Aug, 2018 ) :South Korea is bracing for the rapidly intensifying Typhoon Soulik, which threatens to hit this week and become the first typhoon to directly pass through the peninsula in six years, according to the state weather agency.

The season's 19th typhoon was located 1,100 kilometers southeast of Japan's Kagoshima, Kyushu Island, as of 9 a.m. Sunday, gusting northwest at 12 kilometers per hour. It has been rapidly strengthening since it formed near Guam three days before, the Korea Meteorological Administration said.

The currently high-intensity, mid-scale typhoon is expected to arrive near South Korea's southern city of Yeosu on Thursday morning and then move up toward North Korea's eastern coastal regions, the weather agency said.

It was initially forecast to pass over seas south and east of the peninsula but is now predicted to turn westward and slam into the country.

If so, Soulik will become the first typhoon to directly hit the country since Typhoon Sanba in 2012, which left two killed and two injured and flooded hundreds of homes and buildings.