Kim Dong-wan, who was known as the country's first weathercaster, died Sunday at the age of 89, the state weather agency said.

Kim began working as a weather forecaster for what is now the Korea Meteorological Administration in 1959. In the 1970s, he started giving weather forecasts at then broadcaster TBC, using catchy phrases, such as "heat that feels like a fly is falling asleep," to grab listeners' attention.

He later worked for broadcaster MBC starting in 1982 and made weather forecasts easy to understand by drawing his own diagrams.

Kim is considered to have established the foundation for modern day weathercasts.

In 2010, he was awarded the Camellia Medal of the Order of Civil Merit in recognition of his work delivering weather forecasts in a familiar and credible manner.