Seoul, Jul 17 (IANS): South Korea's central and southern regions, already battered by heavy monsoon rains over the past week, are bracing for another spell of torrential downpours on Tuesday, the state weather agency said Monday.

With heavy rain warnings in effect for the central provinces of Chungcheong and almost all of the southern provinces below, the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) said that extremely heavy rains of more than 70 mm per hour are expected in some areas on Tuesday, reports Yonhap News Agency.

About 50 people have been killed or gone missing nationwide in the heavy downpours over the past week.

The KMA said the downpours may intensively pummel small areas, forecasting hourly precipitation of 30 to 60 mm for the central and southern regions and 30 to 80 mm for the southern resort island of Jeju until Tuesday night.

It also predicted hourly precipitation of 30 to 60 mm for the Gyeonggi and Gangwon provinces, where a heavy rain advisory has been issued.

All told, the central and southern provinces may receive an additional 100 to 200 mm of rain by Tuesday night, the KMA said, adding the two-day precipitation in the Seoul metropolitan area will range from 10 to 60 mm.