There is just no way that this flood created by the North Koreans wasn’t intentional:

The government is asking North Korea for an explanation about a flash flood on the Imjin River that has presumably killed six South Koreans.

Unification Ministry spokesman Chun Hae-sung said the government sent a message to the communist state on Monday expressing regret over the massive damage.

The South Korean government suspects the flood was caused by the North’s apparent discharge of an estimated 40 million tons of water from its Hwanggang Dam near the inter-Korean border without prior notification.

Seoul also asked the North to notify the South beforehand of any future plans to release water from any of its dams.

He added that the government will decide whether to propose inter-Korean talks on preventing flood disasters after assessing how the North responds to the latest incident.

Earlier on Sunday, six South Koreans who were camping along the river near the border with the North were swept away when the river’s water level suddenly surged. Three were found dead on Monday. The search goes on for the others.  [KBS Global]

The BBC has video of the flood here. Sonagi at the Marmot’s Hole has more as well.

There is just no reason to release water from the dam this time of year especially since no warning was given.  So this appears to be yet another intentional provocation by the North Koreans against the South.

Here is a Google Earth image of the Hwanggang Dam in North Korea:

The dam is only 5 kilometers from the DMZ, which probably means it was constructed solely as a means to threaten South Korea with a flood:

Attack by flooding by the North has long been a fear by many in the South and this is actually not the first time a flood like this has happened.  Because of this threat that is why the Peace Dam was built on Bukhan River in North Central South Korea:

Peace Dam in South Korea

The Peace Dam is probably the only dam in world constructed with no reservoir.  It is simply there to prevent flooding by the North Koreans.  The Imjim River that flows into South Korea really doesn’t have a good area to construct a dam thus just farm land is mainly located around the river with any villages built well above flood level.  However, the river is very popular for fishing and camping and as this incident shows these people are at risk when North Korea decides it wants to flood the river.

It will be interesting to see if the South Korean government shows any outrage over this.  I just find it interesting is that a Korean civilian working for a USFK mortician on Yongsan can dump a few gallons of formeldahyde down the drain which is reprocessed by two water treatment before being dumped into the Han River, can create more public outrage than North Korea deliberately flooding the Imjim River and killing six Koreans.