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(3rd LD) S. Korea demands apology from North over deadly dam release
By Kim Hyun and Byun Duk-kun
SEOUL, Sept. 8 (Yonhap) -- South Korea demanded an apology and further explanation from North Korea on Tuesday over a sudden discharge of dam water that left six people dead or missing, saying the North's response was not satisfactory.
Some 40 million tons of water from the North's Hwanggang Dam pushed through the Imjin River, which flows out to South Korea's west coast, at pre-dawn hours on Sunday, sweeping away the victims who were camping or fishing along the riverbanks. Three bodies have been found while the search continued to find the others missing.
North Korea responded rather promptly to Seoul's earlier demand for an explanation, saying Monday the discharge was caused by a sudden surge of water in a dam. It did not apologize for or mention the lives lost.
Kim Sung-hwan, South Korea's top presidential secretary for foreign affairs and security, said the government was trying to verify the exact cause of the unannounced discharge by the North.
"You can understand that we are looking at the case with all possibilities open," Kim told a press briefing when asked if Seoul believes the discharge could have been intentional.
Kim said South Korea was working with its allies to secure satellite images of the accident site taken at the time of the tragic incident. He said initial reports suggest there had been no torrential rains in the North in recent days.
President Lee Myung-bak offered condolences to the families of six South Koreans who were killed or remain missing.
"It grieves me that six innocent lives were lost," the president was quoted as telling a Cabinet meeting earlier Tuesday, also instructing that a thorough investigation into the case be conducted to prevent the recurrence of such an incident.
The North in a letter sent through an inter-Korean hotline said it looked into the incident and "found that the water was discharged in an emergency as it reached high levels."
Pyongyang also said it will issue alerts in the future to prevent a recurrence of similar floods.
The Unification Ministry in Seoul demanded a more thorough explanation from the North, however, saying Pyongyang's initial response failed to explain why it was forced to discharge the water as it claims.
"With regard to the loss of our citizens' lives, our government demands a sufficient explanation from responsible authorities in the North and an apology," Unification Ministry spokesman Chun Hae-sung said in a statement announced at a press briefing.
Meanwhile, South Korea returned to the North the body of a North Korean boy, which had drifted downriver along with the floodwater, ministry officials said.
The boy, aged four or five and discovered by a South Korean army guard, was handed over to the North through the truce village of Panmunjom on "humanitarian grounds," said Lee Jong-joo, spokeswoman for the ministry.
The deadly flood has aggravated cross-border relations, which had recently shown signs of recovering. For the first time in nearly two years, the countries are set to hold reunions for families separated by the Korean War this month. A cross-border consultation office also reopened this week at a joint industrial complex in the North, months after Pyongyang shut it down to protest Seoul's hard-line policy against its nuclear program.
It remained to be seen whether North Korea will issue an apology, which would be unprecedented in its history. The closest the North has officially come to acknowledging responsibility has been to offer its "regrets," such as after a deadly naval clash in 2002 which the North initiated.
"This time, there should be deliberations as to whether 'regrets' will be accepted as an apology," said Lee Jong-joo, the spokeswoman.
Flash floods have frequently caused damage to fish farms in the South Korean border county of Yeoncheon, 60km northeast of Seoul, since North Korea began building dams to generate much-needed electricity along the Imjin River in 2000 and discharging water after summer monsoons without notice.
The latest incident, however, is the first to result in human casualties.
The Hwanggan Dam, some 40km north of the border, was reportedly completed in 2007 and can hold up to 400 million tons of water. More than 340mm of rain fell on the region in late August, according to the North's state television.
The victims were about 25km south of the border when the floodwaters came.
South Korea's alert system was also faulted. The military detected rising water levels but failed to notify the local government, leaving the campers unattended. Flood alert equipment along the riverside also failed to operate.
The Koreas have no formal accord on controlling the floodgates. Seoul has asked for pre-notification at inter-Korean talks in recent years but the two sides have not been able to settle on technical procedures.
There have been no consultations on the matter since the conservative Lee Myung-bak government came to power in Seoul last year.
hkim@yna.co.kr
bdk@yna.co.kr
(END)
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