From East Asia Intel, subscription
The just-completed Peace Dam, just south of heavily fortified border, is the latest evidence that the Cold War is not over on the Korean peninsula.
Potential hydraulic attack from the NORKS.
After 18 years of on-again off-again work, South Korea finished constructing the large dam last week. The dam is designed to prevent a flood attack from the North should Pyongyang deliberately collapse a dam farther upstream.
In September, North Korea released a massive amount of water from a dam just north of the border without warning, causing massive flooding in the South's border area, reminding residents of the perils of living next to the communist neighbor that invaded the South five decades ago.
A Kimmie tantrum could turn to a flood, literally.
[...snip...]
Floods caused by the North occurred in October 2001 and in September 2002 causing hundred of thousands dollars in damages.
The Peace Dam, 601 meters wide at the top and 125 meters high, has a water storage capacity of 2.63 billion tons, according to the Ministry of Construction and Transportation. It cost 400 billion Won ($380 million).
Nice little public works project.
The dam is located about 125 kilometers northeast of Seoul and is intended to mitigate damages in case North Korea's Imnam or Mt. Kumgang dam collapsed, ministry officials said.
The North Korean dam is 710 meters wide and 121.5 meters high and has a claimed capacity of 2.62 billion tons of water. The dam was completed in 2003.
"According to computer mock tests, if the Imnam Dam collapses, most of the increased water will be stored in the Peace Dam, and the rest will be stored in Paro Lake, which is in front of the Hwacheon Dam, south of Peace Dam," said Cheon Byung-Sung, director of water resources at the ministry. "There is no reason to worry about a possible flood triggered by a collapse of the North Korean dam," he said.
No reason to worry, hokay, if you say so.
In 1986, the South Korean government of President Chun Doo-Hwan announced that North Korea was preparing a "water attack" that could sweep away the northern part of the country, causing huge casualties.
North Korea was "secretly" building the Imnam Dam to hold as much as 20 billion tons of water, which could be used to engulf South Korea, the government said at the time. Construction began in February 1987, initially funded at 63 billion Won ($60 million).
But the announcement was later dismissed as an anti-communist ploy designed to overcome Chun's political crisis, and construction on the dam came to a halt in 1990. In 1993, the Board of Audit and Inspection under President Kim Young-Sam's government found that the flood threat was "absurdly bloated."
The actual North Korean reservoir also turned out to be 2.62 billion tons, less than one-eighth the Chun government's claim.
But construction resumed after satellite photographs in 2002 found that the Imnam dam was eroding, triggering fears that it would rupture in case of heavy rains.
Possible water release from the North's dam has long been a source of security fears in the South, which faces lingering threats from its communist neighbor.
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