The South’s Unification Ministry said it was making necessary preparations.
The government sped up construction of a large, anti-flooding dam - which has been in operation since June 30 - in response to the construction of the North Korean dam, which discharged an estimated 40 million tons of water into the Imjin River last September, killing six people.
At the time, some South Korean media speculated Pyongyang meant the move as an attack, but the North later said it had to release water because levels at its own dam were dangerously high. It promised to warn Seoul of similar surges in the future.
“There won’t be any problem,” said Moon Kwang-hyuk, a South Korean Land Ministry official. “We can just store the released water in our dam.” The North told the South through a military hot line that it may have to release dammed water after 8 p.m. on Sunday if there was no letup in torrential rain that has pounded the peninsula in recent days, the Unification Ministry said.
The North’s notice came amid persistent tension in the wake of the March sinking of a South Korean warship blamed on Pyongyang.
An international investigation said in May that a North Korean submarine fired a torpedo that sank the warship Cheonan, killing 46 South Korean sailors. The North flatly denies that it launched an attack and has warned any punishment would trigger war.
In another development, South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-Hwan on Sunday expressed skepticism about North Korea’s recent overtures to resume stalled six-party talks on its nuclear disarmament.
Pyongyang was just trying to deflect pressure after being blamed by Seoul and its allies for sinking the South Korean warship in March, Yu told state television.
“It is very regrettable that (North Korea) is trying to abuse the six-party talks to make an excuse to shun the global attention to the Cheonan incident,” Yu told KTV.
The North said on July 10 that it was willing in principle to return to nuclear disarmament talks after the United Nations failed directly to blame it for the deadly attack on the Cheonan.
The talks - grouping the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia -- have been stalled since North Korea quit them in April 2009.
