It’s chang ma in Korea right now—monsoon season. Every summer, torrential rain clouds park over the Korean peninsula for about month, rendering huddling indoors with soju and some dried anju even more enticing than usual.
There are negative consequences to chang ma too, however (soju headaches aside), including seasonal flooding. And now the North Korean government has increased the danger by reportedly opening the floodgates of a dam that sits a scant 30 miles or so from the South Korean border. The additional water is now flowing into South Korean territory through a river that the two countries share, spurring fears that the river may overrun its banks.
In 2009, the North Korean government pulled a similar stunt, and drowned six South Korean campers when it opened a series of floodgates unannounced. After that, Pyongyang promised it would warn the South when it planned to release dam water. This time around, the North Korean government broke its word, however, and remained mum. “If North Korea is sincerely interested in dialogue, peace and improving cross-border relations as it says all the time, it should show that it’s willing to cooperate on little things like the water discharge” noted a South Korean military spokesman.
The South Korean government does not believe that Pyongyang is deliberately targeting the South with a water attack—this is more an issue of courtesy than belligerence. But using flooding as a weapon is hardly without precedent: William the Orange, for example, deliberately caused flooding in what is now Belgium to help turn the tide during the 80 Years War. It’s just not obvious that that’s what Kim the Red is up to right now.
