Zoos in East Asia implement emergency protocols as record heat waves sweep region

VPM | By Anthony Kuhn

Published August 6, 2026 at 8:42 AM EDT

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

Now to East Asia, where many countries are sweltering under record temperatures. The heat is especially risky for rapidly aging societies in South Korea and Japan. Governments there treat heat waves as natural disasters and are mobilizing resources to beat the heat. NPR’s Anthony Kuhn reports from Seoul.

(SOUNDBITE OF CICADAS BUZZING)

ANTHONY KUHN, BYLINE: A deafening crescendo of cicadas cuts through the midday heat. Over the weekend, the mercury hit 108 degrees in the city of Yangsan, the hottest in over a century of weather records in South Korea. Twenty-one people have died from heat-related illnesses in South Korea. In Japan, the heat wave complicated the response to an earthquake that killed 38 people and displaced thousands in Kumamoto prefecture. In Seoul, residents dabble their feet in Cheonggyecheon, a natural stream that the city turned into a downtown park. Seven-year-old Summer Han (ph) is back from Seattle to visit family.

SUMMER HAN: Me and my grandma – it’s so hot, so we only keep inside. It’s so hot.

KUHN: Summer’s mother, Mijin Jung (ph), says she’s concerned about her parents.

MIJIN JUNG: (Through interpreter) I am extremely worried because the air conditioning is hard for them to endure in small enclosed Korean homes. So even if it’s hot, we try to find a place like Cheonggyecheon or a valley stream to dip our feet in.

KUHN: Heat waves claim far more lives every year in South Korea and Japan than other natural disasters. Most of the victims are elderly. President Lee Jae Myung told his aides that the government must quickly adapt to the new normal and protect citizens’ lives.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

PRESIDENT LEE JAE MYUNG: (Speaking Korean).

KUHN: “We are effectively facing a national climate disaster,” he said. “We must respond with greater urgency than ever before, maximizing the level, scope and speed of our policy responses.” That includes everything from ensuring water and power supplies to checking up on elderly residents. Back at the stream, Mijin Jung says she uses some of the same tricks to keep her kids cool that her parents used on her.

JUNG: (Through interpreter) I find it fascinating that some of the old ways still apply to our modern society. My back feels cool after eating something like mango shaved ice, and the kids say, ah, I feel like my head just froze.

KUHN: Anthony Kuhn, NPR News, Seoul.

(SOUNDBITE OF LOWERCASE NOISES’ “THIS IS FOR OUR SINS”) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

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Anthony Kuhn

Anthony Kuhn is NPR's correspondent based in Seoul, South Korea, reporting on the Korean Peninsula, Japan, and the great diversity of Asia's countries and cultures. Before moving to Seoul in 2018, he traveled to the region to cover major stories including the North Korean nuclear crisis and the Fukushima earthquake and nuclear disaster.

Kuhn previously served two five-year stints in Beijing, China, for NPR, during which he covered major stories such as the Beijing Olympics, geopolitical jousting in the South China Sea, and the lives of Tibetans, Uighurs, and other minorities in China's borderlands.

He took a particular interest in China's rich traditional culture and its impact on the current day. He has recorded the sonic calling cards of itinerant merchants in Beijing's back alleys, and the descendants of court musicians of the Tang Dynasty. He has profiled petitioners and rights lawyers struggling for justice, and educational reformers striving to change the way Chinese think.

From 2010-2013, Kuhn was NPR's Southeast Asia correspondent, based in Jakarta, Indonesia. Among other stories, he explored Borneo and Sumatra, and witnessed the fight to preserve the biodiversity of the world's oldest forests. He also followed Myanmar's democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, as she rose from political prisoner to head of state.

Kuhn served as NPR's correspondent in London from 2004-2005, covering stories including the London subway bombings and the marriage of the Prince of Wales to the Duchess of Cornwall.

Besides his major postings, Kuhn's journalistic horizons have been expanded by various short-term assignments. These produced stories including wartime black humor in Iraq, musical diplomacy by the New York Philharmonic in Pyongyang, North Korea, a kerfuffle over the plumbing in Jerusalem's Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Pakistani artists' struggle with religious extremism in Lahore, and the Syrian civil war's spillover into neighboring Lebanon.

Prior to joining NPR, Kuhn wrote for the Far Eastern Economic Review and freelanced for various news outlets, including the Los Angeles Times and Newsweek. He majored in French literature as an undergraduate at Washington University in St. Louis, and later did graduate work at the Johns Hopkins University-Nanjing University Center for Chinese and American studies in Nanjing.

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