U.S. Water News Online
SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea has notified South Korea of plans to control water levels at a dam near the border, alleviating South Korean concerns about possible cross-border flooding. North Korea's Land and Environmental Protection Ministry said it would begin drawing out water from the Kumgangsan Dam ahead of the rainy season, said South Korea's Unification Ministry, which handles policy toward communist North Korea. The Unification Ministry quoted the North as saying the decision to notify its southern neighbor was based on ``brotherly love'' and a ``humanitarian spirit.'' North Korea notified the South of its plans in a telephone call through its liaison office at the border village of Panmunjom. ``We believe that the North's measures will help alleviate concerns over the dam,'' the South's Unification Ministry in a statement. South Korea had said there were cracks in the dam and that cross-border flooding would be severe if the dam broke. North Korea has called the concerns a ``smear campaign.'' South Korean officials had hoped to bring the issue up during a scheduled round of economic talks with the North this month. But the North canceled the talks, accusing South Korean Foreign Minister Choi Sung-hong of supporting what it calls Washington's hard-line policy toward the North. The Koreas were divided in 1945 and share the world's most heavily armed border. The United States keeps 37,000 troops in South Korea.
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