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Fishing nets and traps throughout Yeoncheon and Paju in Gyeonggi Province were swept away Friday when the April 5 Dam further upstream on the Imjin River near the Northern side of the Military Demarcation Line suddenly discharged water. North Korea completed work on the April 5 Dam, which blocks a gorge of a tributary to the Imjin River about 1 km north of the DMZ in Tosan County, Hwanghae Province, in 2001.
A Gyeonggi Province official said it appeared North Korea opened the dam out of concern over possible floods from the approach of supertyphoon Nabi. But fishermen, who say they experienced similar losses in 2001 and 2002, are demanding compensation and steps to ensure this does not happen again, especially fair warning from Pyongyang when it opens the sluice gates.
The North already agreed to do this at an Inter-Korean economic cooperation meeting in Seoul in July, where the two Koreas agreed to take measures to prevent flooding along the Imjin River. Pyongyang also promised to give warning when it discharges water from the Imnam Dam (known in the South as the Mt. Kumgang Dam), whose waters flow into the lower Bukhan River, but the North has failed to keep the promise.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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