Geography of South Korea
The Japanese islands of Honshū and Kyūshū are located some 200 km (124 mi) to the southeast across the Korea Strait; the Shandong Peninsula of China lies 190 kilometers to the west.
Some 44.8 percent (100 210 square kilometers) of this total, excluding the area within the DMZ, constitutes the territory of the Republic of Korea.
[2] The largest island, Jeju Province, lies off the southwest corner of the peninsula and has a land area of 1,825 square kilometers.
Although the eastern coastline of South Korea is generally unindented, the southern and western coasts are jagged and irregular.
[1] Early European visitors to Korea remarked that the land resembled "a sea in a heavy gale" because of the large number of successive mountain ranges.
[citation needed] Many tall mountains exceeding 1,000 m (3,281 ft), which are concentrated in the north and the east, form the "topological backbone" of the country.
The highest mountain peak in South Korea is Hallasan (1,950 m (6,398 ft)), which is the cone of a volcanic formation constituting Jeju Island.
The major rivers flow north to south or east to west and empty into the Yellow Sea or the Korea Strait.
Combination of reforestation efforts (e.g. Arbor Day was celebrated as a national holiday starting in 1949) and policies designed to reduce the use of firewood as a source of energy (e.g. restriction of inflow of firewood into Seoul and other major cities starting in 1958) helped to spark a recovery in the 1950s.
Because of its southern and seagirt location, Jeju Island has warmer and milder weather than other parts of South Korea.
This disaster prompted the North Korean government to make an unprecedented offer of humanitarian aid in the form of rice, medicine, clothes, and building materials.
The rainy season is a representative summer weather in East Asian countries, including the Republic of Korea, and accounts for more than 30% of the precipitation on the Korean Peninsula.
[11] A distinct congestion front is created between the cold and humid Okhotsk Sea air mass located on the northern Russian coast and the hot and humid North Pacific air mass near the Ogasawara Islands, resulting in a rainy season.
To be exact, the speed of high pressure formation varies depending on the amount of ice in the Bering Sea and the amount of snow accumulated in the Tibetan Plateau, as the rainy season begins with the speed at which each high pressure in the north and south of the Korean Peninsula moves.
[10] The rainy season ends when the North Pacific high pressure expands and the Okhotsk Sea fleet retreats.
However, during the period from summer to autumn, as the North Pacific high pressure contracts and cold air expands in the north, the stagnant front moves south again and settles near the Korean Peninsula, which is called the "Autumn rainy season" or "second rainy season."
[12] Due to severe climate change caused by global warming in India, daytime temperatures have risen to 32 degrees Celsius since mid-April and 39 degrees in late April, resulting in a strong heat wave in mid-summer, which also hit Korea in early June 2022.
[13] The head of the Korea Meteorological Administration pointed out in 2022 that it was impossible to predict the recent heavy rain, and that the traditional expression of "rainy season" now seems to have expired.
Yellow Dust occurs in desert areas in China and Mongolia, and the addition of several conditions to the sand particles generated here affects South Korea.
When low pressure passes over the generated sand dust, it rises to a high sky of 3,000-5,000m by a strong ascending air current and then travels in westerlies and jets of about 30m per second.
Most of the typhoons invading the Korean Peninsula are concentrated during this period, and sometimes indirect effects occur in June and October.
In the case of typhoons heading to Korea, most of them fall into Japan, or Jeju Island, Gyeongsangnam-do, and Jeollanam-do are often directly damaged.
This disaster prompted the North Korean government to make an unprecedented offer of humanitarian aid in the form of rice, medicine, clothes, and building materials.
South Korea is self-sufficient in rice and potatoes but depends on imports to support its dominantly urban population.
Historical records, however, describe volcanic activity on Mount Halla during the Goryeo Dynasty (no having kissits lowlands are the product of mountain erosion.
South Korea is a party to: Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Antarctic-Marine Living Resources, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution (MARPOL 73/78), Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands, Whaling
