SEOUL - Yellow and fine dust blanketed South Korea on March 29 with a thick haze of pollution categorised as “very bad” in the central region of the country, prompting the state weather agency to issue advisories.

Yellow dust advisories for the greater Seoul area, Gangwon and South Chungcheong provinces were raised to “caution”, the second-lowest level in the government’s four-stage crisis alert as at 8am on March 29, according to the Ministry of Environment.

A yellow dust warning is issued when the average hourly concentration of fine particulate matter or PM10 stays above 300 micrograms for longer than two hours.

The Environment Ministry said it has issued North Gyeongsang province the “attention” level against yellow dust, the lowest in its warning system.

The “attention” level is issued when particulate matter concentrations are forecast to be “very bad”. The weather authorities here categorise concentrations of PM10 between zero and 30 micrograms as “good”, between 31 and 80 as “normal”, between 81 and 150 as “bad” and more than 151 as “very bad”.

As yellow dust originating near the Inner Mongolia region was being carried into the country by north-westerly winds, the fine dust level across the country was expected to remain at “bad” to “very bad” throughout the day.

The yellow dust is expected to continue to cover the country as it moves south-eastward with the north-westerly winds, and is expected to continue to affect the country through March 30, according to the weather authorities.

South Korea’s national weather agency advised people with respiratory or cardiovascular illnesses, the elderly and children to stay indoors. People should use masks when going outside when fine dust levels are high. The agency also advised avoiding rain, as it contains fine dust particles. THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK