A relentless, record-shattering heat wave has swept across Northeast Asia, leaving a trail of human casualties, animal deaths, and disrupted daily life in South Korea, North Korea, and Japan, with extreme temperatures pushing communities and emergency systems to their breaking point.
In South Korea, the crisis has escalated to the status of a national disaster, according to top government officials. Since mid-May, national data from the Interior and Safety Ministry confirms 2,220 people have developed heat-related illnesses, with 19 losing their lives to extreme temperatures. The agricultural sector has also suffered catastrophic losses: more than 17,000 head of livestock including chickens, ducks, and pigs have perished from heat exhaustion, alongside roughly 160,000 farmed fish. On July, the southeastern city of Yangsan recorded a historic high of 42.5 degrees Celsius (108.5 Fahrenheit), the highest temperature ever measured in the country since consistent weather monitoring began in 1904.
As of Wednesday, most of South Korea remained under extreme heat warnings, with temperatures in the greater Seoul metropolitan area—home to more than 20 million residents—climbing as high as 39 degrees Celsius (102.2 Fahrenheit). During a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, South Korean President Lee Jae Myung ordered government agencies to treat the ongoing heat emergency as a full national disaster and deploy all available resources to protect civilian lives.
The extreme heat has already disrupted public events across the country. Last Tuesday, a spectator in his 20s collapsed mid-game during a professional baseball match between the SSG Landers and LG Twins at Incheon’s stadium, forcing a 10-minute game stoppage as emergency crews administered CPR and rushed him to a hospital. A second fan in his 20s also lost consciousness shortly after the game concluded and required on-site medical care. In response, the Korea Baseball Organization announced Wednesday it would cancel all 10 scheduled professional games for Wednesday and Thursday, with plans to reschedule the matches at a later date.
To the north, North Korean authorities have also issued heat wave warnings across most of its territory, urging residents to take precautionary measures to prevent heat-related health complications. A top hospital official from Pyongyang General Hospital, Min Son Yong, told state newspaper Rodong Sinmun that people should consume specific foods to maintain stamina in extreme heat. Min recommended dog meat—known euphemistically in North Korea as *dangogi*, or sweet meat, a traditional summer food believed to boost energy during hot weather—alongside fish porridge to add protein to diets. He also listed cooling produce including watermelons, cucumbers, tomatoes, and mung beans as ideal heat-beating foods. While dog meat consumption is also common in other parts of East Asia and parts of Africa, South Korea is set to implement a full national ban on the slaughter, breeding, and sale of dog meat for human consumption starting in 2025.
In Japan, the ongoing heat wave has compounded existing recovery efforts in the wake of a recent major earthquake. Japan’s Anti-Disaster Agency reported that between July 20 and 26 alone, more than 18,000 people showing heat stroke symptoms were admitted to hospitals across the country. On Wednesday, Japan’s Environment Ministry issued a top-level heat stroke alert for most of western and southern Japan. While temperatures in the Tokyo region have dipped slightly this week, extreme heat continues to batter southern areas of the archipelago.
In the southwestern city of Kumamoto, recovery work is still underway after a magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck the region on July 28, which killed 38 people. Among the fatalities was a 70-year-old woman who suffered fatal heat stroke while sheltering in her car after the quake. As of Wednesday, more than 43,000 households in the affected area still remained without running water, leaving residents even more vulnerable to the extreme heat.
The heat has also proven deadly for captive wildlife in the region: three female lions have died from heat-related complications at Tokyo’s Tama Zoological Park, with other animals also showing clear signs of heat stroke. Park officials reported that the first fatality, 3-year-old Mugi, developed a loss of appetite on July 19 and lost the ability to stand just one day later. Zookeepers attempted to cool her down with increased ventilation and water sprinklers, and administered subcutaneous fluids, liver tonics, and vitamins, but Mugi died on July 28. Two other lions—11-year-old Ichigo and 15-year-old Luena—died within a few days of Mugi. Autopsies confirmed all three lions suffered from severe dehydration and multiple organ failure, which park officials have attributed directly to the extreme ongoing heat.
The deadly heat wave across Northeast Asia aligns with broader scientific warnings that climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of extreme heat events globally, with the upcoming El Niño pattern expected to push global temperatures even higher in coming months.