South Korea closed schools yesterday and its factories producing memory chips stepped up safeguards as a choking pall of sand mixed with toxic dust from China covered most of the country and other parts of Asia.
The annual "yellow dust" spring storms, which originate in the Gobi Desert in China before sweeping south to envelop the Korean Peninsula and parts of Japan, are blamed for scores of deaths and billions of dollars in damage every year in South Korea.
Seoul issued a yellow dust warning at the weekend. Yesterday, school districts in southeastern regions urged parents to keep kindergarten and elementary school children at home.
"We advised the closure because kindergarten, primary school students have weaker immune systems," said Min Eyu-gi, an education official in Busan.
An official with the Meteorological Administration said the first major storm of the season, which has also hit parts of Japan, was dissipating.
But forecasts from China said cold air and little rainfall would lead to more storms from tomorrow through next Tuesday, Xinhua news agency reported.
Taiwan mostly avoided the toxic clouds, but skies in Taipei yesterday were overcast, with the government telling people to wear surgical masks and avoid exercising outdoors.
In Japan, car drivers and train operators were asked to be on alert because the sandstorms had greatly reduced visibility.
Japanese Environment Minister Ichiro Kamoshita recently called on Beijing to disclose data on the yellow sand.
"About yellow sand, I am not quite sure how and why it can be regarded as a national secret," Kamoshita told a press conference last month.
"Air is connected beyond national borders and yellow sand travels beyond borders. I think it is important we share information," he said.
The sand storms have increased in frequency and toxicity over the years because of China's rapid economic growth and have added to growing tensions with its neighbors South Korea and Japan.
The dust picks up heavy metals and carcinogens, such as dioxin, as it passes over Chinese industrial regions, before hitting North and South Korea and Japan, meteorologists say.
Dry weather and seasonal winds in China hurl millions of tonnes of sand at the Korean Peninsula and Japan from late February through April or May, turning the skies to a jaundiced hue.
The state-sponsored Korea Environment Institute said the dust kills up to 165 South Koreans a year, mostly the elderly or those with respiratory ailments and makes as many as 1.8 million ill.
Annual economic damage to South Korea from the storms is estimated at up to 5.5 trillion won (US$5.82 billion), the institute said.
Hynix Semiconductor Inc, the world's second-largest maker of memory chips, said it had stepped up its filtration systems and made employees take longer air showers to make sure the dust does not contaminate its production lines and damage chips, which are made using technology that operates on a microscopic level.
South Korean retailers, however, have spotted an opportunity, offering special scarves, hats and other accessories for the yellow dust season.
Also see: Feared dust cloud not as severe as forecast, says EPA
‘NO SECURITY RISK’: The Railway Bureau reassured the public that the technicians’ activities were limited to technical guidance and did not involve sensitive systems The Railway Bureau yesterday said it had invited eight Chinese technicians to assist with an airport MRT construction project. The bureau issued the confirmation after an Internet user said Chinese nationals had entered the construction zone of Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport’s Terminal 3 project. They asked why “individuals from an enemy state” were allowed access to such a major national infrastructure project, which raised serious concerns over Taiwan’s industrial safety, sensitive systems and information security. The bureau’s Northern Region Engineering Branch Office said subcontractor Taiwan Handle Industrial Co (台灣手把工業) of the Taoyuan airport MRT’s “Contract No. CU05 Project A14 Station Civil, MEP &
A US uncrewed surface vessel (USV) encountered multiple Chinese warships during an autonomous transit of the Taiwan Strait, US defense company Seasats said in a statement on Wednesday. Seasats announced that a Lightfish USV had completed the first autonomous transit of the Taiwan Strait. Over five days, the USV traversed the entire length of the Strait while constantly monitoring surface vessel traffic, the company said. The Lightfish encountered multiple Chinese warships, one of which was a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) Type 056 corvette, it said. The Chinese vessels were operating “well within Taiwan’s exclusive economic zone without transmitting their identity via the
Taiwan is still in the process of assessing the possibility of recruiting workers from Eswatini, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday, adding that its goal is to help Eswatini upgrade its vocational training centers. If there are plans to recruit workers from Eswatini, safeguarding national security, protecting public health and ensuring the employment rights of Taiwanese would be prerequisites, Department of West Asian and African Affairs Director-General Yen Chia-liang (顏嘉良) told a news conference. Key considerations would also include filling labor shortages in specific industries, and fostering bilateral professional and technical exchanges, he said. Yen was asked about the progress of labor
‘BOOMING’: ’ The number of partners we have here is incredible. You can see from their stock prices. They’re doing so well, they’re so happy,’ Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp’s spending in Taiwan has ballooned to about US$150 billion a year, 10 times the US$10 billion to US$15 billion the company spent five years ago, Nvidia chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said yesterday, suggesting Taiwan’s strategic importance in the global artificial intelligence (AI) supply chain. “Taiwan is the epicenter of the AI revolution. This is where the chips come, packaging comes. This is where the systems are made. This is where AI supercomputers were created,” Huang said at a meeting for the company’s employees in Beitou-Shilin Technology Park (北投士林科技園區) in Taipei, the planned site of Nvidia’s Taipei headquarters. “Taiwan
RSS