A new study warns one-point-two percent of the Korean Peninusla could be submerged by 2100 due to global warming.

The National Oceanographic Research Institute (NORI) issued the forecast in a report on climate change.

The report said that, if the current level of fossil fuel use continues, sea levels could rise almost 50 centimeters by century's end.

Consequently, about 856 thousand square kilometers in the coastal areas - an area larger than the size of Seoul - could go under water.

NORI said the nation's average temperature rose one-and-a-half degrees Celsius in the past hundred years, adding that sea levels have risen one-point-nine millimeters a year since 1964.

In particular, the sea level around Jeju Island has risen almost 22 centimeters in only 40 years.