Presidential office on 24-hour emergency duty over approaching typhoon

The office of President Yoon Suk Yeol was on 24-hour emergency duty Wednesday as a powerful typhoon was set to make landfall on the southeast coast and travel northward across the country.

Typhoon Khanun has been forecast to arrive Thursday morning before moving slowly northward on a path that could bring it near the capital area and cause damage on a massive scale.

Yoon might stay up overnight to oversee the response to the approaching typhoon, officials said.

"The typhoon, which was initially expected to travel northward along the East Sea coast, has changed its course and appears that it will pass through the capital area," a presidential official told Yonhap News Agency. "We are maintaining an emergency duty system."

Yoon presided over an emergency meeting in the underground bunker of the presidential office building Tuesday to discuss the government's response to the typhoon and will continue to receive real-time briefings Wednesday.

He is expected to pay special attention to the safety of the 37,000 participants of the 25th World Scout Jamboree, who were evacuated the previous day from the Saemangeum venue on the southwest coast to eight different regions across the country.

If Yoon works overnight at the presidential office, it will be the second time he has done so to oversee readiness against a typhoon, after staying up during the approach of Typhoon Hinnamnor last September. (Yonhap)