His call came as the weather in Japan is also taking a toll, with three lions from a Tokyo zoo dying from suspected heatstroke and others having to undergo treatment amid high levels of humidity.
Speaking at a cabinet meeting, Lee called on officials to take necessary measures to protect the daily lives of people and inspect power systems as demand for air-conditioning surges.
“We need to make efforts for a fundamental overhaul of the national crisis system, since this extreme weather is becoming normal,” he said.
The nation’s weather agency said Yangsan, a southeastern inland city, recorded a temperature of 42.5 degrees Celsius on Sunday, the highest measured in 122 years of weather observations.
The Korea Meteorological Administration also issued its first-ever heatwave warning for parts of Seoul and neighbouring Gyeonggi on Monday, extending this to all of the capital on Tuesday.
Japan is also sweltering through its hottest summer on record last year and parts of the country have hit 40 degrees in recent weeks, qualifying for the new designation “cruelly hot day”.
Since mid-July, 10 of the 16 lions in Tama Zoological Park have suffered symptoms such as “loss of appetite and decreased activity”, and three lionesses died, the zoo said.
“Even though lions are thought to be resistant to heat, zoo keepers have been strengthening countermeasures to cope with Japan’s summer heat in recent years.
Heat here comes with high humidity; that is different from heat with dry air in Africa,” a spokeswoman said.
“But this summer, heat arrived suddenly after the rainy season was over” in late July, she said.
Close to 18,600 people were taken to hospital for heatstroke between July 20 and 26, with 45 of them pronounced dead on arrival, according to the fire and disaster management agency.
Japan experiences about 1,300 heat-related deaths annually and is aiming to halve that number by 2030. (Reuters/AFP)
