So it looks like the scorching heatwave is here to stay for awhile... with Seoul to hit highs of around 39 degrees Celsius this week.
And this heat's caused a *surge in electricity demand, leading to power failures.
The good news though.... is that the electricity supply has now stabilized,.... but the bad news... is that there'll be another peak in the second week of August.
Our Kim Hyo-sun reports.
Typhoon Jongdari, which has brought heavy rain to Japan, continues to weaken as it heads towards South Korea's resort island of Jeju.
The Korea Meteorological Administration says the typhoon had weakened to a tropical depression by Sunday afternoon,... but warned that it will still bring strong winds to South Korea's east coast on Monday and the south coast on Tuesday.
The weather office added that the heat wave that has led to power failures will continue.
The government says electricity supply has been stabilized as of last Friday.
While the daily electricity demand peaked at 92-point-48 million kilowatts on July 24th,... it remained around 90 million kilowatts throughout the rest of last week.
The electricity reserve margin which alerted the nation as it dropped into the seven-percent range last Wednesday has jumped back to around nine percent,... closer to the ten percent mark at which power supply is considered stable.
Yet, the government cannot let its guard down as we near August,... when electricity use is expected to rise again.

Jul. 25, 2018
"The second week of August, when most companies resume operations, is considered the electricity usage peak for the summer. We'll face no major challenges even during the peak as we've increased the supply capacity by at least one million kilowatts."

As this year's unexpected heat wave has put the nation's electricity supply on red alert,... the government continues to come up with additional measures to tackle the problem.
Kim Hyo-sun, Arirang News.