South Korea: President Lee Orders Swift Declaration Of Special Disaster Zones 

SEOUL, July 20 (Bernama-Yonhap) -- South Korea’s  President Lee Jae Myung instructed the government Sunday to find ways to swiftly designate areas hit hard by recent heavy rains as special disaster zones, Yonhap News Agency reported, citing his spokesperson.

Lee also called for a swift survey of the scale of damage from the rain and landslides that began across the nation last Wednesday, Kang Yu-jung said in a message to the press.

Special disaster zones are entitled to government support for damage recovery and relief to victims.

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As of 11 am, 14 people were killed and 12 others were missing due to the heavy rains, according to the government and the National Fire Agency.

The government launched an interagency recovery support team earlier in the day.

"The interior ministry, other relevant ministries and the affected local governments will fully mobilise all available resources and carry out swift emergency restoration work," Interior Minister Yun Ho-jung said during a meeting of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters in the central city of Sejong, saying the government will shift its focus from responding to the rains to recovering from the damage.

Separately, Prime Minister Kim Min-seok gave instructions to Agriculture Minister Song Mi-ryung to visit the southern county of Sancheong and draw up support measures, his office said.

Sancheong has accounted for a large portion of the casualties.

The prime minister further instructed the interior minister to visit the affected regions on Monday and console the residents while coming up with detailed support plans.

-- BERNAMA-YONHAP