South Korea asks North to alert before releasing dam water

South Korea's unification ministry on Friday requested North Korea give prior notice when releasing water from a dam across the border, with Seoul citing humanitarian grounds. Isolated and impoverished, North Korea is especially vulnerable to natural disasters and has taken measures to prevent flooding -- including releasing water from a dam near its southern border, which has raised safety and flooding concerns in South Korea. According to Seoul's unification ministry, which oversees its relations with the North, six South Koreans died in 2009 after Pyongyang released water without prior notice. The issue is "directly related to the safety of our citizens living in border areas", Chang Yoon-jeong, the ministry's deputy spokesperson, told reporters. "Joint response to natural disasters is a humanitarian issue, and the South and the North have agreed several times to cooperate to prevent flood damage," she said.

"Accordingly, we request that the North notify us in advance when releasing water from the dam on humanitarian grounds in order to prevent flood damage in the border area... during the rainy season." North Korea was hit by severe flooding in its northern regions near the Chinese border last year, with state media reporting that more than 15,000 flood victims had to be relocated to the capital. South Korea's President Lee Jae Myung, who took office this month, has vowed a more dovish approach towards Pyongyang compared with his hawkish predecessor Yoon Suk Yeol. Lee has said he would seek talks with the North following a deep freeze under Yoon when relations plummeted to their worst level in years. The Lee administration has halted the loudspeaker broadcasts -- including K-pop tunes and international news -- that Seoul had begun last year in response to a barrage of trash-filled balloons flown southward by Pyongyang. In turn, a day after, North Korea stopped transmitting bizarre, unsettling noises along the border that had been a major nuisance for South Korean residents in the area.