Amid mounting criticism that North Korea's Kumgang Dam may be on the verge of collapse, the South Korean government is mulling over plans to finish constructing its Peace Dam according to the Construction and Transportation Ministry Wednesday. During inter-Korean economic cooperation talks scheduled for next Tuesday, the South's delegation is planning to call for a joint investigation into the safety of the Kumgang Dam.

In case the North turns down this request the South is already drawing up comprehensive measures to have the Peace Dam completed. The Peace Dam has been pending completion since 1988 with construction only half way through. It was first built amid concerns over the Kumgang Dam, which some believe could flood Seoul should it break down.

Since January last year 350 million tons of muddied water have leaked from the Kumgang Dam and flowed into the Peace Dam reservoir 10km away. This raised concerns that serious damage could be caused if the former collapsed. Some experts warn that as is the case currently the dam affects the metropolitan are during the drought season.

The government has remained silent on the true nature of the dam and people have differing views; some say it only has a capacity of 300 million tons, whereas other say it is far in excess of this, leading concern expressed by residents of the nearby Yangju County.

The MOCT will only say that satellite photographs show that the parts of the top of the dam collapsed causing the leak.

Professor Choi Seok-bom of Kangwon University said the leak was probably due to structural defects due to lack of maintenance. Professor Choi asserted that if it collapsed muddy water would reach the Peace Dam in two hours and could clog up its water outflow drains. The Peace and Hwacheon dams have reservoir capacities of 600 million and one billion, respectively and should contain the excess water.

Professor Jo Won-chul of Yonsei University discounts the threat, saying the water from Kumgang would have to flow through many obstacles before reaching the dams and its strength would have been substantially weakened. He adds the damage currently experienced during the drought season is of more concern noting that since Kumgang began operations in 2001 the inflow into the Hwacheon reservoir from 2.9 billion tons to 1.2 billion. Jo says that by 2011 the annual water shortfall in the Han River systems will reach 310 million tons. Experts add water levels in the Han have already dropped by up to two meters, while power generation at Hwacheon has fallen from 300 million kilowatts to 160 million, costing W300 billion.

A similar problem is being experienced on the Imjin River in the west of the peninsula as North Korea completed the April 5 Dam on March 15 last year, north of the demilitarized zone. At the time the government said on March 19 that its reservoir capacity was only 35 million tons and so would have minimal impact on the South. However in Yeonchon County, where the river enters South Korea, the water level has fallen from 1.5 meters to less than a meter and has shrunk from 100 meters wide to between 10 and 20.

The Yeonchon Purification Plant, which supplies water to 80,000 people, has seen the level of its intake reservoir drop from 2 meters to 1.6 meters, 10cm above it shut off level. As a result last winter saw a drought in the surrounding area.

Last October, people suffered 300 million in flood damage, which the government put down to torrential rain in North Korea. However, Professor Chang Seok-hwan of Daejin University, an expert on the Imjin River, said there was only 55mm of rain at the time and so either the North Koreans opened the dam's sluices, or part of it collapsed.

Residents are calling on the government to build a dam to counter such action, but the government halted plans to do so near the DMZ after objections by North Korea. Instead it will build a dam lower down the river to be completed by 2008.

Chosunilbo (Koo Seong-jae, sjkoo@chosun.com)  [2002.05.02]