Second typhoon pounds S. Korea, kills two

A new typhoon hit South Korea's southern coast on Thursday, killing two people, as the country cleared up damage from a powerful storm earlier in the week that left 19 dead. Typhoon Tembin, with winds of up to 83 kilometres per hour (52 mph), made landfall at the southern city of Suncheon and brought more than 150 millimetres (six inches) of rain to some parts of the country, the weather service said. A 52-year-old female worker at a ship components company in the southwestern county of Yeongam was crushed to death when strong winds toppled a large iron gate, the public administration ministry said. A landslide killed a man aged 66 in the central city of Cheonan, it said. The transport ministry said 173 domestic and international flights had been cancelled. Schools were closed or class hours adjusted, mainly in southern areas. Scores of sea ferry routes were shut in the south and southwestern regions. Tembin was moving northeast through southern provinces at a speed of 24 km per hour and was forecast to arrive at the Sea of Japan (East Sea) late Thursday. The weather bureau said it was expected to be downgraded to a tropical storm early Friday. On Tuesday Typhoon Bolaven -- the strongest to hit the country for almost a decade -- left a trail of death and damage across parts of the country. It drove two Chinese fishing ships with a total crew of 33 aground off the southern coast of Jeju. Rescuers pulled a total of 12 people to safety, and six swam ashore. Nine bodies had been recovered as of Thursday, leaving six still missing. The hunt for the six was briefly suspended when Typhoon Tembin approached but later resumed despite high waves. Ten divers and a helicopter were taking part, Ko Chang-Keon, a coastguard spokesman in Jeju, told AFP. The confirmed death toll from Typhoon Bolaven, including South Koreans killed elsewhere, is now 19. Bolaven moved on to North Korea, killing three people, leaving more than 3,300 people homeless and damaging some 110 public and factory buildings, the official news agency said Thursday. The storm also ravaged more than 32,000 hectares of farmland, it said. The impoverished North is grappling with the after-effects of floods in June and July that killed 169 people and left 400 missing. The North suffers chronic food shortages, with the situation exacerbated by floods, droughts and mismanagement. During a famine in the mid to late-1990s, hundreds of thousands died.