Torrential downpours across South Korea over the past five days have killed at least 18 people and left nine others missing, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety said on Monday. Landslides and flash floods swept away homes, roads and vehicles as the country endured some of its heaviest recorded rainfall. Gapyeong, 62 kilometres northeast of Seoul, logged 173 millimetres of rain in just 17 hours on Sunday, breaking national hourly records. Southern counties such as Sancheong have absorbed 600–800 millimetres since Wednesday. Authorities said nearly 10,000 people had evacuated at the height of the deluge, with about 2,730 residents still in temporary shelters after water damaged roughly 4,200 public and private facilities. President Lee Jae Myung has instructed officials to designate the hardest-hit areas as special disaster zones, promising extra financial aid and an investigation into any official failings. With the rain easing, the national weather agency has issued a heat-wave watch, underscoring the growing volatility of the peninsula’s summer climate.