Deadly River Surge, SKorea Complained NKorea
September 7, 2009 by Trend PK
Filed under World News
SEOUL: South Korea complained to North Korea on Monday about a sudden release of water into a river flowing across their border that left six people missing in the South.
The incident could cast a chill over ties that have warmed between the rivals in the past month with North Korea reaching out to the South to restore business and tourism ventures severed for about a year due to political bickering.
“At this point, we still wouldn’t quite call it a water assault,” Defence Ministry spokesman Won Tae-jae told a briefing. “There has to be intention present for us to be able to do that.”
The six who went missing, including a child, were camping on the bank of the Imjin River bank they were swept away on Sunday in a surge of water. The river starts in the North and ends in the South to the northwest of Seoul.
Officials said the missing likely drowned.
North Korea was suspected of releasing water from a dam, South Korean officials said, noting there have not been heavy rains in the region for the past several days.
South Korea for years has worried about dams the North has built along rivers that flow across the border fearing its communist neighbour could use flood waters as a weapon to attack.
The North has built several dams on the Imjin River, a major waterway, including one a few kilometres north of the heavily armed border between the two states who have yet to sign a formal peace treaty to end the 1950-53 Korean War.
South Korea has long sought the North’s cooperation in flood control and setting up warning systems but Pyongyang has been reluctant to join.
The North has failed to notify the South ahead of releasing water on several previous occasions, resulting in flood damage in the South.
North Korea has claimed its dams on the Imjin are designed to release water automatically when they reach a certain threshold, South Korea’s Unification Ministry said.
Deadly River Surge, SKorea Complained NKorea was first posted on September 7, 2009 at 3:15 pm.
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