S Korea braces for second typhoon

A new typhoon barrelling towards South Korea on Thursday forced rescuers to suspend the search for seven missing crew members of two Chinese fishing boats wrecked in a previous gale.

Typhoon Bolaven -- the strongest to hit the country for almost a decade -- left a trail of death and damage in southwest and south-central regions of the country this week.

A fresh typhoon alert was raised early Thursday over the Yellow Sea off the west coast as Typhoon Tembin was 200 kilometres (125 miles) southwest of the southern island of Jeju and moving north at a speed of 41 km per hour.

Flights were grounded at Jeju airport, schools were closed or their class hours adjusted there as scores of sea ferry routes have been shut down in the south and southwestern regions.

Packing winds of up to 112 kph, Tembin is expected to make landfall around 0600 GMT Thursday at the southern port of Gunsan, bringing up to 150 millimetres (six inches) of rain, the weather service said.

Bolaven drove two Chinese fishing ships aground early Tuesday off the southern coast of Jeju. Rescuers pulled a total of 12 people to safety, and six swam ashore.

Eight bodies had been recovered as of Wednesday, bringing the confirmed death toll, including South Koreans killed elsewhere due to the storm, to 18. Seven crew members from the two Chinese boats were still missing.

"We suspended the search operation this morning due to high waves. We will resume it later today," local coastguard spokesman Ko Chang-Keon told AFP.

Bolaven moved on to North Korea, damaging crops and toppling some 3,700 roadside trees, the North's official Korean Central News Agency said. Human casualties were not reported.

It crossed the Yalu border river into China early Wednesday.

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