South Korea’s main opposition party criticised President Lee Jae-myung on Saturday for what it called a “complacent” assessment of air pollution risks, as high levels of fine dust and yellow sand swept across much of the country less than two weeks after he said concerns over pollution from China had largely eased.
Seoul has long blamed a significant share of its hazardous fine dust episodes on pollution drifting in from China, a claim Beijing has disputed at times, making cross-border air quality a recurring and politically sensitive issue that has periodically strained ties between the neighbours.
The People Power Party (PPP) said nationwide alerts for hazardous air quality undermined Lee’s comments made during a state visit to China in early January, when he said the problem of Chinese-origin fine dust had “largely been resolved” and described the situation as showing “tremendous progress”.
“The president’s perception runs counter to the reality citizens are experiencing,” Choi Bo-yoon, the party’s senior spokesperson, said in a statement on Sunday. “Barely 10 days after those remarks, fine dust and yellow sand from China have once again covered the Korean Peninsula, with air quality reaching the worst levels in many regions.”
According to Air Korea under the country’s climate ministry, fine particulate matter, or PM2.5, levels in Seoul and much of the country’s western regions, including the capital area and Chungcheong provinces, stood at “bad” levels of 36–75 micrograms per cubic metre last Thursday.
In parts of Daejeon, South Chungcheong and North Jeolla provinces, PM2.5 concentrations surged to “very bad” levels of 76 micrograms per cubic metre or higher, prompting the year’s first fine dust advisories in some areas. South Chungcheong province activated a 24-hour pre-emptive pollution reduction measure, which requires public institutions to take steps to curb emissions ahead of a potential emergency order.
Authorities said the pollution was driven by an inflow of fine dust from China carried on relatively warm southwesterly winds, followed by northwesterly air currents bringing additional dust and sand from desert regions.
The National Institute of Environmental Research forecasted that high pollution levels would persist through Sunday, with atmospheric stagnation allowing both foreign and domestically generated particles to accumulate across most regions except the eastern Gangwon area.
The institute also said yellow sand, which originated earlier this week in the Gobi Desert and Inner Mongolia, would pass over South Korea through Sunday morning.
Recent research indicates that PM2.5 exposure has been a major contributor to mortality across Asia over recent decades, linked to millions of premature deaths and a broad range of health issues, underscoring the urgency of stronger air quality controls in the region.
PPP’s Choi said in some areas visibility had dropped to as little as 50 metres, making it difficult for people to breathe comfortably. “Fine dust is not a temporary inconvenience. It is a disaster that directly threatens public health and daily life,” she said.
Choi urged the government to press China for “substantive and verifiable” measures to cut emissions, including stricter standards and caps on total output of yellow sand.
The criticism comes as South Korea’s climate and environment ministry said a revised bill to extend the mandate of the national fine dust countermeasures committee had passed parliament. The panel, which advises on major air quality policies and plans, will now operate until February 2031, five years longer than previously scheduled, to oversee the government’s second comprehensive fine dust management plan for 2025–2029.
High pollution episodes in South Korea often coincide with warmer winter conditions, which weaken cold air flows that would otherwise disperse domestic emissions, while westerly winds carry particulates from abroad. In recent years, so-called “winter yellow sand” events, once rare, have become more frequent, a trend scientists link to climate change and warmer conditions in parts of Mongolia and northern China.
