Koreans begin Seollal exodus

Koreans are hitting the road for the annual exodus to spend the three-day Lunar New Year holiday with family members. The first day of the Lunar New Year is tomorrow.

"I am very excited at the thought of meeting with my new-born nephews and other loved ones back in my hometown. It has been almost a year since the last time I went down there," Kim Il-yong, a 29-year-old office worker in Seoul, said before boarding a bus bound for Daegu.

"I feel a little worried about the traffic congestion due to the snow on the roads."

The Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs expected a total of 25.46 million people, a 10.1 percent increase from the previous year, to be traveling between yesterday and next Tuesday.

According to the Korea Expressway Corporation, traffic is expected to be congested until 2 p.m. today and between 10 a.m. tomorrow and midnight on Monday.

During the holiday, a daily average of 3.6 million cars - a 23.1 percent increase from a year ago - are expected to take to the expressways across the country, the KEC said.

In the Seoul metropolitan area, an average of 620,000 cars per day, a 22.6 percent increase from the previous year, are expected to travel.



The KEC anticipates that during the holiday period, the average car journey between Seoul and Busan will take a maximum of eight hours and 45 minutes, four hours and 40 minutes between Seoul and Daejeon, and seven hours between Seoul and Gwangju.

Due to the air current from the northeast, the Yeongdong region of Gangwon Province and the eastern coastal region in North Gyeongsang Province are forecast to see cloudy skies or snow this morning, according to the Korea Meteorological Administration.

Snow is also expected in the morning in the central region, South and North Jeolla Provinces and inland areas of North Gyeongsang Province. In the areas, chances of precipitation are 60 percent.

This morning, the temperature is expected to dip down to minus 7 degrees Celsius, while the daytime high is forecast to reach 9 degrees.

"The weather during the holiday is not expected to be very cold. But as it is snowing in many regions of the country, the roads are wet and icy. Drivers need to take extra caution given the bad road conditions," Jung Jong-hoon, a KMA official, told The Korea Herald.

Tomorrow, rain is expected on Jeju Island due to a low pressure trough. The rest of the country will see cloudy skies. On Monday and Tuesday, it is expected to be cloudy across the country.

The projected precipitation during the holiday is 0-6 millimeters, the KMA said.

Throughout the holiday, the morning lows will range from minus 9 to 5 degrees Celsius and the daytime highs will reach 3-13 degrees Celsius.

(sshluck@heraldm.com)



By Song Sang-ho