Seoul: The South Korean professional baseball league has announced the cancellation of all games scheduled for the rest of this week due to an ongoing heat wave, with the season set to resume early next week.

According to Yonhap News Agency, the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) reached this decision following an emergency executive board meeting, which included the general managers of the 10 clubs and representatives from the players' association. The KBO had previously canceled 10 games set for Wednesday and Thursday, leaving the status of the weekend series in doubt before the meeting. After two hours of discussion, the league decided that no games would be played for the remainder of the week, with the regular season resuming next Tuesday.

The KBO has also announced that all weekday and weekend games will start at 7 p.m. until further notice. Typically, weekday games begin at 6:30 p.m., and weekend and holiday games start at 6 p.m. during the summer. However, an exception has been made for weekend games at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul, the league's only domed venue, where Saturday games will begin at 6 p.m. as usual, and Sunday games may start at 2 p.m. depending on the TV broadcasting schedule.

To address the extreme heat, the KBO will introduce cooling breaks after the third and seventh innings, with a brief intermission after the ninth inning if a game goes into extra innings. These breaks will last four minutes instead of the usual two minutes.

Initially, the KBO had canceled games in the southeastern region and in Seoul and Gwangju, cities under serious heat wave warnings. However, three other games, including one in Incheon-under a lower-level heat wave advisory-proceeded as scheduled. During that game between the LG Twins and the SSG Landers, 25 fans were treated for heat-related illnesses, prompting the KBO to pause the season.

Starting next week, the KBO will also consider canceling games in cities not under the highest-level heat wave warning, with decisions potentially made up to three hours before the first pitch. Park Keun-chan, secretary general of the KBO, mentioned that while some teams opposed canceling the weekend games, the majority prioritized safety over the schedule.

The decision has resulted in 30 games being canceled due to heat this summer, affecting the late-season schedule. Park emphasized that the current priority is the safety of fans and players, with scheduling concerns to be addressed later in the season.