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Russian veto halts UN monitoring of North Korea nuclear sanctions

Russia this week vetoed the annual renewal of a panel of experts tasked with monitoring the enforcement of U.N. sanctions against North Korea for its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

Thirteen U.N. Security Council members voted in favor of extending the panel’s mandate for an additional year, while China abstained.

North Korea has been under sanctions for its ballistic missile and nuclear programs since 2006 and the vote does not affect the sanctions themselves.

The panel, made up of independent experts, has been conducting oversight for 15 years, reporting twice a year to the Security Council. Experts also provide recommendations on how to better implement measures.

Russia’s veto came amid allegations that North Korea has transferred weapons to Russia to use in its invasion of Ukraine. Both Russia and North Korea have denied the claims.

South Korea’s U.N. Ambassador Joonkook Hwang slammed the outcome of the vote.

“This is outrageous and makes no sense at all, given the continued and accelerated advancement of the North Korean nuclear and missile programs,” he said. “Pyongyang has been openly denouncing the authority of the Security Council and pursuing an increasingly dangerous and aggressive nuclear policy, in particular targeting the Republic of Korea.”

The panel’s current mandate expires on April 30. Their recent report, released this March, looked at alleged cyberattacks by North Korea to further bolster its nuclear weapons program.

Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia was not sold on the panel’s independence.

“Its work is increasingly being reduced to playing into the hands of Western approaches, reprinting biased information and analyzing newspaper headlines and poor quality photos,” Nebenzia said to the Security Council before the vote on Thursday, according to Reuters.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.

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Russian veto brings an end to the U.N. panel that monitors North Korea nuclear sanctions

UNITED NATIONS — A veto Thursday by Russia ended monitoring of U.N. sanctions against North Korea over its nuclear program, prompting Western accusations that Moscow is seeking to avoid scrutiny as it allegedly violates the sanctions to buy weapons from Pyongyang for its war in Ukraine.

Russia’s turnaround on the U.N. monitoring reflects how Moscow’s growing animosity with the United States and its Western allies since the start of the Ukraine war has made it difficult to reach consensus on even issues where there has been longstanding agreement.

The veto came during a vote on a U.N. Security Council resolution that would have extended the mandate of a panel of experts monitoring sanctions on North Korea for a year, but which will now halt its operation when its current mandate expires at the end of April.

The vote in the 15-member council, with 13 in favor, Russia against, and China abstaining, has no impact on the actual sanctions against North Korea, which remain in force.

Russia had never before tried to block the work of the panel of experts, which had been renewed annually by the U.N. Security Council for 14 years and reflected global opposition to North Korea’s expanding nuclear weapons program.

Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told the council before the vote that Western nations are trying to “strangle” North Korea and that sanctions are losing their “relevance” and are “detached from reality” in preventing the proliferation of nuclear weapons in the country.

He accused the panel of experts of “increasingly being reduced to playing into the hands of Western approaches, reprinting biased information and analyzing newspaper headlines and poor quality photos.” Therefore, he said, it is “essentially conceding its inability to come up with sober assessments of the status of the sanctions regime.”

But U.S. Deputy Ambassador Robert Wood called the panel’s work essential and accused Russia of attempting to silence its “independent objective investigations” because it “began reporting in the last year on Russia’s blatant violations of the U.N. Security Council resolutions.”

He warned that Russia’s veto will embolden North Korea to continue jeopardizing global security through development “of long-range ballistic missiles and sanctions evasion efforts.”

White House national security spokesman John Kirby condemned Russia’s veto as a “reckless action” that undermines sanctions imposed on North Korea, while warning against the deepening cooperation between North Korea and Russia, particularly as North Korea continues to supply Russia with weapons as it wages its war in Ukraine.

“The international community should resolutely uphold the global nonproliferation regime and support the people of Ukraine as they defend their freedom and independence against Russia’s brutal aggression,” Kirby told reporters.

Britain’s U.N. Ambassador Barbara Woodward said Russia’s veto follows arms deals between Russia and North Korea in violation of U.N. sanctions, including “the transfer of ballistic missiles, which Russia has then used in its illegal invasion of Ukraine since the early part of this year.”

“This veto does not demonstrate concern for the North Korean people or the efficacy of sanctions,” she said. “It is about Russia gaining the freedom to evade and breach sanctions in pursuit of weapons to be used against Ukraine.”

“This panel, through its work to expose sanctions non-compliance, was an inconvenience for Russia,” Woodward said.

France’s U.N. Ambassador Nicolas de Riviere added that “North Korea has been providing Russia with military material in support of its aggression against Ukraine, in violation of many resolutions which Russia voted in favor of.”

Russia’s deputy U.N. ambassador Dmitry Polyansky responded, calling these “unfounded insinuations” that “only strengthened our conviction that we took the right decision to not support the extension of the panel of experts.”

The Security Council imposed sanctions after North Korea’s first nuclear test explosion in 2006 and tightened them over the years in a total of 10 resolutions seeking — so far unsuccessfully — to cut funds and curb its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

The last sanctions resolution was adopted by the council in December 2017. China and Russia vetoed a U.S.-sponsored resolution in May 2022 that would have imposed new sanctions over a spate of intercontinental ballistic missile launches.

The Security Council established a committee to monitor sanctions and the mandate for its panel of experts to investigate violations had been renewed for 14 years until Thursday.

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Russia shuts down UN watchdog tracking North Korea sanctions

Russia has shut down a panel of UN experts that have for years monitored sanctions against North Korea.

The panel last week said it was probing reports that Russia violated rules by buying North Korean weapons like ballistic missiles for use in Ukraine.

The UN’s Security Council has imposed a series of sanctions on Pyongyang since 2006 for its nuclear weapons programme.

Those restrictions are still in force – but the experts group set up to monitor violations will now be disbanded.

In a Security Council vote on Thursday, Russia used its veto power as a permanent member to block the renewal, while 13 of the other 14 member states present voted for it. China, Pyongyang’s closest ally, abstained.

Russia’s block triggered a wave of condemnation from the US, UK, South Korea and other Western allies and comes after a year of high-profile public meetings between Moscow and Pyongyang leaders.

This is the first time Russia has blocked the panel – which has been renewed annually by the UN Security Council for 14 years.

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on social media Russia’s veto was tantamount to “a guilty plea” that it was using North Korean weapons in the war.

The US, UK and France all told the Council that Russia was silencing the watchdog because it had begun to report on Moscow’s own violations of the rules- specifically purchasing weapons from North Korea for the battlegrounds in Ukraine.

Meanwhile, South Korea’s representative at the UN criticised Russia’s “blind self-centeredness” and said it had no justification “for disbanding the guardians” of the sanctions regime.

“This is almost comparable to destroying a CCTV to avoid being caught red-handed,” Ambassador Hwang Joon-kook said.

Russia has consistently denied using North Korean weapons and its representative at the UN again dismissed the accusations on Thursday.

Vasily Nebenzia also argued that the panel of experts had no added value.

“The panel has continued to focus on trivial matters that are not commensurate with the problems facing the peninsula,” said Mr Nebenzia, who also added that sanctions had imposed a “heavy burden” on the North Korean people.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russia's Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu visit an exhibition of armed equipment on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Korean War armistice — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un showed off his country’s missiles to Russia’s Defence Minister on a visit last year [Reuters]

Since 2019, Russia and China have sought to persuade the Security Council to ease sanctions.

The Security Council first imposed sanctions in 2006 in response to a North Korean nuclear test, and has since passed 10 more resolutions strengthening them as Pyongyang’s nuclear activity has continued.

However Kim Jong Un’s regime has largely ignored the sanctions- despite their impact on the economy. The North Korean leader has rapidly continued nuclear weapons development and has pursued a more aggressive and dangerous military strategy in recent years.

The UN experts say North Korea continues to flout sanctions through increased missile test launches and developing nuclear weapons. The regime launched a spy satellite this year – with technology believed to have been provided by Russia.

In breach of the sanctions, it also continues to import refined petroleum products and send workers overseas, and the UN panel’s most recent report detailed a campaign of cyber attacks.

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Hyundai to invest more than $50 bn in South Korea in major EV push

Hyundai on Wednesday revealed plans to invest more than $50 billion in South Korea by 2026, with a huge chunk dedicated to boosting the development and production of electric vehicles.

Along with its affiliate Kia, Hyundai is the world’s third-largest automaker by sales, but the South Korean giant lags in the EV sector behind Elon Musk’s Tesla and Chinese firm BYD.

Hyundai is keen to break into the global EV top three, saying last year that it was aiming to boost electric car production to more than 3.6 million units by 2030.

With the 68 trillion won ($50.5 billion) investment announced Wednesday, Hyundai Motor Group said it wants to “secure future growth engines in an uncertain business environment through constant change and innovation”.

“The automotive sector, including future mobility projects, accounts for… 63 percent of the Group’s total investment,” it added.

Under the plan, Hyundai will create 80,000 jobs in South Korea and build three new EV factories, with the aim of increasing annual EV production in the country to 1.51 million units by 2030.

The group’s EV strategy also includes investments in infrastructure, software, battery technology and autonomous driving.

A Greenpeace report in November said Hyundai’s growing sales of gas-guzzling sport utility vehicles had offset any climate gains from its transition to EVs.

It noted that Hyundai-Kia had posted SUV sales increases of more than 150 percent over the past decade.

SUVs emit approximately 12 percent more carbon dioxide than sedans, the environmental group said, urging Hyundai to reduce SUV sales.

When asked about the report, Hyundai said it was expanding its fleet of “fully electric SUV vehicles”, including Kia’s EV6 and EV9.

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Senior doctors in South Korea submit resignations, deepening dispute over medical school plan

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Senior doctors at major hospitals in South Korea began submitting their resignations en masse Monday in support of medical interns and residents who have been on a strike for five weeks over the government’s push to sharply increase medical school admissions.

The senior doctors’ action won’t likely cause an immediate worsening of hospital operations in South Korea because they have said they would continue to work even after submitting their resignations. But prospects for an early end to the medical impasse were also dim, as the doctors’ planned action comes after President Yoon Suk Yeol called for talks with doctors while suggesting a possible softening of punitive steps against the striking junior doctors.

About 12,000 interns and medical residents have faced impending suspensions of their licenses over their refusal to end their strikes, which have caused hundreds of cancelled surgeries and other treatments at their hospitals.

They oppose the government’s plan to increase the country’s medical school admission cap by two-thirds, saying schools can’t handle such a steep increase in students and that it would eventually hurt South Korea’s medical services. But officials say more doctors are urgently needed because South Korea has a rapidly aging population and its doctor-to-population ratio is one of the lowest in the developed world.

In a meeting with ruling party leader Han Dong-hoon on Sunday, representatives of medical professors and doctors at some 40 university hospitals — where the junior doctors worked while training — expressed support for the striking doctors, saying the government’s recruitment plan “would collapse our country’s medical system,” Kim Chang-soo, head of the emergency committee at those universities, said Monday.

Kim called Yoon’s overture a positive step but said the current standoff between doctors and the government won’t be resolved unless the government rolls back its recruitment plan.

He said doctors at the universities were expected to stick to earlier plans to submit resignations voluntarily and cut back their working hours to 52 hours per week — the maximum weekly number of legal working hours. Observers say senior doctors have been grappling with excessive workloads after their juniors left their hospitals.

“If the government has an intention of withdrawing its plan or has an intention of considering it, we’re ready to discuss all pending issues with the government before the public,” Kim said.

Later Monday, an unspecified number of senior doctors went ahead and handed in their resignations, according to doctors involved in the protests. They said some doctors had already submitted resignations last week.

After Sunday’s meeting, Han asked Yoon’s office to “flexibly handle” the issue of planned license suspensions for the striking doctors. Yoon then asked his prime minister to pursue “a flexible measure” to resolve the dispute and seek constructive consultations with doctors, according to Yoon’s office.

It’s unclear whether and how soon the government and doctors would sit down for talks and reach a breakthrough. Some observers say the government’s likely softening of punishments for the striking doctors and its pursuit of dialogue with doctors were likely related to next month’s parliamentary elections as further disruptions of hospital operations would be unhelpful for ruling party candidates.

The striking junior doctors represent less than 10% of South Korea’s 140,000 doctors. But in some major hospitals, they account for about 30% to 40% of the doctors, assisting senior doctors during surgeries and dealing with inpatients while training.

Public surveys show that a majority of South Koreans support the government’s push to create more doctors, and critics say that doctors, one of the highest-paid professions in South Korea, worry about lower incomes due to a rise in the number of doctors.

Officials say more doctors are required to address a long-standing shortage of physicians in rural areas and in essential but low-paying specialties. But doctors say newly recruited students would also try to work in the capital region and in high-paying fields like plastic surgery and dermatology. They say the government plan would also likely result in doctors performing unnecessary treatments due to increased competition.

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Kim Jong Un visits tank unit; North Korea says Japan wants summit

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un supervised a tank exercise and encouraged his armored forces to sharpen war preparations in the face of growing tensions with South Korea, the North’s state media said Monday.

Kim made those comments Sunday while visiting his top tank group, the Seoul Ryu Kyong Su Guards 105th Tank Division. The unit’s name marks how it was the first North Korean military unit to reach the South Korean capital in 1950 when a North Korean surprise attack triggered a war that dragged on for almost four years.

Tensions on the Korean Peninsula have heightened after Kim in past months dialed up his military demonstrations, including tests of nuclear-capable missiles designed to target South Korea, the United States and Japan, while issuing threats of nuclear conflict against its rivals.

Washington, Seoul and Tokyo have responded by strengthening their combined military exercises and updating their deterrence plans built around strategic U.S. assets.

Also Monday, North Korea said that Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida offered to meet with Kim “as soon as possible,” but stressed that prospects for their countries first summit in about 20 years would depend on Tokyo tolerating its weapons program and ignoring its past abductions of Japanese nationals.

In a parliamentary session, Kishida said that a meeting with Kim is “crucial” to resolve the abduction issue, a major sticking point in bilateral ties, and that his government has been using various channels to hold the summit.

Kim’s sister and senior official, Kim Yo Jong, said in a statement that Kishida recently used an unspecified channel to convey his position that he wants to meet Kim Jong Un in person “as soon as possible.”

She said there will be no breakthrough in North Korea-Japan relations as long as Kishida’s government is engrossed in the abduction issue and interferes in the North’s “exercise of our sovereign right,” apparently referring to the North’s weapons testing activities.

Some experts say North Korea is seeking to improve ties with Japan as a way to weaken the trilateral Tokyo-Seoul-Washington security partnership, while Kishida also wants to use possible progress in the abduction issue to increase his declining approval rating at home.

North Korea and Japan don’t have diplomatic ties, and their relations have been overshadowed by North Korea’s nuclear program, the abduction issue and Japan’s 1910-45 colonization of the Korean Peninsula. Japan’s colonial wrongdoing is a source of on-again, off-again history wrangling between Tokyo and Seoul, as well.

There are concerns North Korea could further dial up pressure on its rivals and intensify its weapons testing activities in what is an election year in both the United States and South Korea. Kim Jong Un has supervised a series of missile tests and other military drills this year.

Photos published by North Korean state media on Monday showed Kim talking with military officers at an observation post and tanks with North Korean flags rolling through dirt, with at least one of the vehicles carrying a sign that read: “Annihilate U.S. invaders who are staunch enemies of the Korean people!”

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Baseless ‘2020 poll fraud’ claims resurface ahead of S. Korea vote in April

As South Korea geared up for elections in April, social media posts shared a photo of a stack of ballot papers they misleadingly claimed was evidence of vote rigging in the country’s 2020 polls. The picture was taken by a lawyer who alleged votes cast for the Democratic Party in the city of Guri did not have any fold marks, suggesting they were fraudulently filled out. However, the Supreme Court ruled ballots without clear fold marks were not proof of fraud. A legal bid to challenge election results in Guri was dismissed.

The photo, which was shared on Facebook on March 8, 2024, shows a bundle of ballot papers.

The top one shows a vote cast for the Democratic Party’s Yun Ho-jung, who was elected member of parliament for Guri in 2020 (archived link).

Yun’s party won in a landslide and secured the most number of seats in the National Assembly.

Korean text below the picture says police must “prevent the emergence of piles of printed ballots like these during the April 10, 2024 poll”.

<span>Screenshot of the Facebook post, taken on March 15</span> — Screenshot of the Facebook post, taken on March 15

A reverse image search on Google found the photo was originally posted on Facebook by lawyer Park Joo-hyun on May 21, 2020.

“Evidence preserved from the Guri Election Commission,” he wrote in Korean.

“How come the ballot papers inside the early absentee voting envelope are so stiff? They’re as stiff as newly printed banknotes!”

He told South Korean daily Chosun Ilbo that the “stiff” early voting ballots — those that looked fresh and without apparent creases — were suspicious as voters would have to fold them in half to fit the return envelope (archived link).

Similar posts misleadingly claiming the photo was evidence of fraud have circulated online since the 2020 vote here, here and here.

Court cases

However, Korea’s Supreme Court rejected a similar argument in a case it heard alleging fraud in the 2020 elections.

The case — filed in a district in Incheon, southwest of the capital Seoul — argued ballots without fold marks should be considered forgeries.

The court ruled in July 2022 that the absence of fold marks alone did not provide evidence of irregularities (archived link).

It noted the ballots were small enough to be put in the ballot box without folding or placed in the return envelope for absentee, early voters.

Moreover, the court said it used a microscope to examine the ballots that the plaintiff claimed to have no fold marks and in fact found marks on a significant number of them.

The plaintiff was not identified in the ruling.

In addition, the election commission said in its invalid ballots guideline that unfolded ballots were considered valid unless the voter intentionally disclosed their vote (archived link).

As of March 22, 2024, no evidence of rigging in the 2020 election emerged, despite multiple cases filed in court.

According to South Korea’s election commission, 126 lawsuits sought to nullify various poll results in 2020 but no vote rigging was substantiated to date (archived link).

In Guri city, where the picture circulating online was taken, two legal bids challenged the results, a representative from the commission told AFP on March 18.

One of the bids was dropped while the court dismissed the other due to the applicant’s failure to follow proper civil procedure, the representative added.

Ballot paper

Ballot papers have “better crease recovery” compared to regular paper, the election commission representative also said.

A representative from Moorim SP — one of two paper manufacturers that supply ballot paper in South Korea — separately told AFP on March 20: “If ballots are folded, they are unfolded before being put into a sorter. If the ballot paper’s ability to recover from creasing is poor, it causes jamming and hinders the automated sorting process.”

The election commission confirmed to AFP the same type of paper will be used for ballots in the upcoming April poll.

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Bleak images show snapshots of daily life in the closed world of North Korea

An AFP photographer captured rare shots showing everyday life in North Korea.
Pedro Pardo accessed a remote part of the border in China’s Jilin province to get the photos.
`The images show a bleak picture of life in the completely isolated nation.

An AFP photographer captured rare images showing daily life in North Korea.

To get the photos, Pedro Pardo accessed a remote part of North Korea’s border with China in the latter’s Jilin province.

The images Pardo took between February 26 and March 1 offer a bleak yet fascinating look at life in a country shrouded in secrecy.

North Korea was founded in 1948 under Kim Il-sung as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), inspired by strict Marxist-Leninist principles.

Its population of roughly 26 million people lives largely in isolation from the rest of the world in the austere communist state, barred from going abroad without permission from the government and subjected to state-run media that blare propaganda praising the nation and its supreme leader, Kim Jong Un.

North Korea’s self-imposed isolation is largely due to its guiding principle of “juche,” or “self-reliance” — the idea that it should be able to function completely independently and remain separate from the rest of the world.

In practice, this has achieved little other than to stifle the country’s economy and trade, and many of its citizens face high poverty levels and severe food shortages. The CIA says North Korea “remains one of the World’s most isolated and one of Asia’s poorest.”

Since the 1950s, it is estimated that around 31,000 North Koreans have sought to escape and defected to South Korea, The Guardian reported in January.

That number surged last year amid what the unification ministry in Seoul called “worsening conditions in North Korea.”

Pardo’s photos present a unique look into those conditions and life in one of the world’s last communist states.

North Korean soldiers working on the border.

The North Korean city of Hyesan.

A wagon in the North Korean city of Namyang.

A mobile wagon in the North Korean city of Namyang. — Pedro Pardo / AFP via Getty Images

A sign on a hillside in the town of Chunggang reads: “My country is the best.”

A sign saying "My country is the best" — Pedro Pardo / AFP via Getty Images

A watchtower by the border in Hyesan.

A watchtower on the border in the North Korean village of Hyesan. — Pedro Pardo / AFP via Getty Images

Portraits of former North Korean leaders Kim Il sung and Kim Jong Il in Chunggang.

Another set of portraits of the former leaders on a government building in Namyang.

North Korean people working in a field.

A sign in Chunggang reading: “Let’s unify the party and all society with the revolutionary ideas of comrade Kim Jong Un!”

A sign reading, "Let's unify the party and all society with the revolutionary ideas of comrade Kim Jong Un!" in Chunggang. — Pedro Pardo / AFP via Getty Images

Trucks crossing a border bridge connecting Changbai, China, and Hyesan, North Korea.

Trucks crossing the border bridge that connects the Chinese towns of Changbai (L) and the North Korean of Hyesan — Pedro Pardo / AFP via Getty Images

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South Korea says Myanmar arms ban in place after U.N. concern

By Hyonhee Shin

SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea said on Wednesday its ban on the sale of arms to Myanmar remained in place even though it had invited an envoy appointed by its military rulers to an event promoting the sale of weapons.

Thomas Andrews, U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, had expressed “extreme concern” that the Myanmar ambassador, Thant Sin, attended the event hosted by South Korea’s foreign ministry in May, saying it had legitimised the junta and raised doubts about South Korea’s ban.

Myanmar has been in crisis since the military ousted an elected government led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021, with most Western governments isolating the generals and cutting off arms sales but others, including Russia and China, maintaining close relations.

“Our government has been still strictly implementing countermeasures against Myanmar since they were announced shortly after the outbreak of the crisis, including a ban on exports of military supplies, and there is no change in this position,” the South Korean ministry said in a statement.

Andrews had said in a letter to South Korea’s diplomatic mission in Geneva that the envoy’s “participation in the event legitimises an illegal and brutal military junta”.

The invitation to Thant Sin also “raises doubts” about South Korea’s ban on arms exports to Myanmar and could imply its intention to permit the sale, despite the junta’s responsibility for attacks on civilians, Andrews said.

South Korea’s Geneva-based diplomatic mission said last month the invitation was sent to all countries in the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations in line with “established practice” and was “absolutely unrelated” to its policy towards Myanmar’s military.

Close U.S. ally South Korea had not conducted any arms transactions with Myanmar since 2019 but operates major development projects there.

Andrews, following a visit to South Korea in November, urged it to take even stronger action to deny the Myanmar junta legitimacy and help reverse the crisis.

(Reporting by Hyonhee Shin; editing by Robert Birsel)

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Flights and ferries halted in South Korea ahead of storm that’s dumped rain on Japan for a week

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Dozens of flights and ferry services were grounded in South Korea on Wednesday ahead of a tropical storm that has dumped rain on Japan’s southwestern islands for more than a week.

Khanun’s heavy rains and winds were expected to arrive in South Korea’s southern and eastern regions Wednesday afternoon, South Korea’s weather agency said. It is expected to reach the southern resort island of Jeju hours later and then make landfall near the mainland port of Tongyeong early Thursday.

The agency says Khanun could have a punishing impact as it will likely slice through the center of the country over several hours while packing winds blowing at 90 to 154 kph (56 to 97 mph) before moving to North Korea early Friday.

The Korean Meteorological Administration measured Khanun at typhoon strength with maximum winds of 126 kph (78 mph) as of 9 a.m. Wednesday, as it passed through waters 360 kilometers (223 miles) southeast of Jeju while moving northward at a speed of 12 kph (7.4 mph).

Japan measured Khanun as a severe tropical storm with sustained winds of 108 kph (67 mph) and higher gusts. Warnings for stormy conditions, potential flooding and other risks were issued for the southwestern part of Japan’s southern island of Kyushu and nearby areas.

As a stronger typhoon last week, Khanun lashed Okinawa and other Japanese islands, causing injuries and damage.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol has called for officials to be aggressive with disaster prevention measures and evacuations while stressing the perils posed by the storm, which comes just weeks after the country’s central and southern regions were pounded by torrential rain that triggered flashfloods and landslides that killed at least 41 people.

The Korea Airport Corporation said at least 144 flights going in and out of Jeju were canceled as of 11 a.m. as Khanun approached. Ferry services connecting the island with mainland ports were also cancelled while authorities shut down at least 39 roads, 26 riverside parking lots and 613 hiking trails nationwide as part of broader preventive measures.

Khanun has forced South Korea to evacuate the World Scout Jamboree that had been taking place at a coastal campsite in the southwestern county of Buan. Officials on Tuesday mobilized more than 1,000 buses to transfer 37,000 global scouts to university dormitories, government and corporate training centers and hotels in the capital Seoul and nearby areas.

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