The cold snap continued across Korea on Wednesday as the morning's lowest temperature in Munsan, Gyeonggi Province plunged to -25.9 degrees Celsius and in Bonghwa, North Gyeongsang Province to -24.7 degrees, setting new records for January.

Seoul saw the mercury dip to -13.3 degrees, the second lowest for early January in 20 years.

The freezing weather is not what weather experts forecast. Many predicted this winter would be warmer than previous years as El Niño continues to raise the temperature of the sea surface near the equator to abnormally high levels.

Now the Korea Meteorological Administration says the cold snap is attributable to a weather change at the North Pole. "Due to various factors including global warming, the average temperature at the North Pole soared by 10 to 12 degrees Celsius in December from the average of previous measurements, causing a cold Siberian high pressure system to move toward Korea" a KMA official said. "The recent bitter cold in the Northern hemisphere including the U.S. and Europe is also apparently the result of the abnormal rise in the temperature at the North Pole last month."