BUSAN, SOUTH KOREA (AFP, REUTERS) - At least one person was killed and more than 2,000 people evacuated to temporary shelters in South Korea as a powerful typhoon churned across the peninsula, authorities said Thursday (Sept 3).

Typhoon Maysak - named after the Cambodian word for a type of tree - made landfall early Thursday in Busan on the southern coast, knocking down traffic lights and trees and flooding streets.

Flights were also cancelled or delayed, Yonhap news agency reported.

A woman was killed after a strong gust shattered her apartment window in Busan, while a man in his 60s was injured when the wind toppled an outdoor refrigerator, crushing him.

Another victim of the typhoon was a statue at a park in Ulsan of a brachiosaurus - a huge plant-eating dinosaur - which was pictured with its neck broken by strong gusts of wind.

More than 2,200 people evacuated to temporary shelters and around 120,000 homes left without power throughout the night across southern parts of the country and on Jeju Island.

Jeju island reported more than 1,000mm of rainfall since Tuesday, according to the weather agency.

The storm later made its way northwards, passing into the Sea of Japan, known as the East Sea in Korea, before making a second landfall around 0200 GMT at Kimchaek in North Korea.

"The typhoon's influence on our country will gradually weaken," South Korea's Meteorological Administration said, forecasting heavy downpours and strong winds in eastern areas.

The Korean peninsula typically sees only one typhoon a year, but another typhoon, Haishen, is brewing south of Japan and is expected to hit the Korean coast on Sunday or Monday, Nasa's Earth Observatory reported.

A ship carrying 43 crew and nearly 6,000 cattle from New Zealand to China capsized in the wild weather in the East China Sea, according to a surviving crew member.

The Gulf Livestock 1 sent a distress call from the west of Amami Oshima island in south-western Japan on Wednesday as Typhoon Maysak barrelled towards the Korean peninsula.

Natural disasters tend to have a greater impact in the North due to its creaking infrastructure, and the country is vulnerable to flooding as many mountains and hills have long been deforested.

The typhoon brought heavy downpours across the North, with total rainfall in the 15 hours to 0300 GMT Thursday reaching 385mm in the port town of Wonsan on its east coast.

Pyongyang's state media have been on high alert, carrying live broadcasts of the situation, with one showing a reporter standing in a street inundated with water in the port town.

But authorities lifted their typhoon warning as the storm weakened and moved towards China.

"The typhoon will pass through Musan and leave our country," a meteorological officer told Korean Central Television. "I don't expect any effects."

Maysak is the ninth typhoon of the season and the fourth to hit the peninsula this year.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un last week visited a farming region hit by Typhoon Bavi and expressed relief the damage was "smaller than expected".

North Korea's agriculture sector is particularly vulnerable to severe weather, and this summer's storms and floods have raised concerns over the country's tenuous food situation.

The string of storms are being fuelled by "extremely warm water of the tropical Western Pacific', Nasa reported.