SEOUL-- The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has adopted Gaenari, the Korean word for the native yellow flowering tree known as forsythia koreana, as a new typhoon name to replace Goni, the South Korean weather agency said Wednesday.

The WMO maintains rotating lists of names to label tropical cyclones in each region. If a typhoon is too devastating, then its name is retired and replaced by a new one, with 14 members of the body's typhoon committee each contributing 10 names.

Goni, a Korean word for swan contributed by South Korea, retired after Super Typhoon Goni in the Philippines in 2020 killed more than a dozen people and displaced hundreds of thousands of others.

South Korea proposed Gaenari as a substitute through a public contest last year, and the typhoon committee has formally adopted it in a recent session, the Korea Meteorological Administration said.

The turn of Gaenari will come after 111 tropical cyclones are identified and named by the WMO in the future. Given a total of 25 typhoons each year on average, it is expected to take at least four years to see a typhoon named Gaenari.

Source: Yonhap News Agency