South Korea's president orders all-out response to heatwave

South Korea's heatwave is expected to peak over Seoul on Thursday, with the capital forecast to hit 39 degrees Celsius in a spell of extreme weather already blamed for more than 20 deaths.



"Extreme heat on a scale we have never experienced is continuing day after day. Heatwave conditions once seen only in foreign news reports have now become our reality," President Lee Jae Myung told a heatwave response meeting on Thursday.



Lee ordered ministries and local governments to mobilise all available personnel and resources until the heatwave eases, stressing protection of lives and safety, stronger safeguards for vulnerable residents and stricter enforcement of rest breaks for outdoor workers during the hottest hours. The forecast temperature would bring Seoul close to its record high of 39.6 C, set in August 2018, during the country's last historic heatwave.



The warning came as Seoul endured another stifling night before what forecasters say could be one of the hottest days in the city's modern history.