TOKYO – South Korea evacuated more than 10,000 people and closed schools in flood-hit areas as Tropical Storm Khanun swept over the peninsula on Thursday, having pounded southern Japan over the past week.

Downgraded from a typhoon, the tropical storm made landfall on South Korea’s south-east coast and was heading towards the capital, Seoul.

It could also strike North Korea’s capital, Pyongyang, and state media there reported that the military and the ruling party have been ordered to prepare flood mitigation measures and salvage crops.

In South Korea, about 350 flights and 410 train routes were cancelled, and more than 10,000 people were moved to safety, the Interior Ministry said. No casualties were reported.

“I’m worried that people living in the lowlands or who make a living by farming and fishing would suffer,” said Mr Kim Wi-jeong, a 33-year-old office worker living in Seoul.

The storm compounded the misery of tens of thousands of youngsters attending the problem-plagued World Scout Jamboree.

Having endured a heatwave last week, they were moved to safer accommodation on Tuesday as their campsite lay in the path of the storm.

Rain pounded southern Japan on Thursday as the storm brushed the country on its way to South Korea.

Fed by humid air from the storm, heavy rain kept pounding a wide swathe of western Japan, where some areas have been hit by well over a normal August’s worth of rain in the past week. One town had recorded 985mm as at Thursday morning.

Attention was also turning to Typhoon Lan, which passed near the Ogasawara Islands, about 1,000km south of Tokyo, late on Wednesday and heading north-north-west at 15kmh.

Though uncertainties remained about the storm’s path, the Japan Meteorological Agency said it could affect the Tokyo area towards the end of the weekend.

The bad weather is striking in the middle of Obon, Japan’s main summer holiday period in which thousands leave big cities to return to their home towns elsewhere in the nation. REUTERS