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North discharges dam water without notice, causing evacuation and safety alerts in Yeoncheon

Published: 15 Oct. 2025, 14:43 Updated: 15 Oct. 2025, 17:23

Thick fog blankets the area around the Imjin River Bridge in Paju, Gyeonggi on Oct. 1. [YONHAP]

The water level at Pilseung Bridge, the northernmost point of the Imjin River in South Korea, rose above the evacuation threshold on Tuesday after North Korea discharged water from its Hwanggang Dam without prior notice, prompting safety alerts in nearby areas.

The Imjin River basin lies mostly in North Korea, with about 60 percent of its drainage area north of the border. The river flows downstream through Yeoncheon County and Paju in Gyeonggi before joining the Han River.

As of 10 a.m. Wednesday, the water level at Pilseung Bridge stood at about 1.4 meters (4.5 feet), up from 1 meter late Tuesday night, according to Han River Flood Control Office and Yeoncheon County. The inflow into the downstream Gunnam Flood Control Dam reached 595.2 tons per second, roughly 400 tons higher than normal.

Once the level passed 1 meter, Yeoncheon County broadcast evacuation sirens and sent disaster text alerts urging “riverside visitors, campers, fishermen and residents to move quickly to safe locations.”

The Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment assessed through satellite imagery that North Korea had opened the floodgates at Hwanggang Dam upstream of the Imjin River. A similar discharge on Saturday raised the Pilseung Bridge level to 1.99 meters the following day. Pyongyang also released water without notice on Sept. 8, July 18 and June 25.

Completed about a decade ago, Hwanggang Dam is roughly five times larger than South Korea’s Gunnam Dam in Yeoncheon, which has a total storage capacity of 71 million tons. The two dams sit only 56.2 kilometers (34 miles) apart. When the North releases 500 tons of water per second, the flow typically reaches Pilseung Bridge in about nine hours.

Pyongyang’s advance notice or coordination with Seoul could help minimize flood risks.

Authorities classify flood alerts in the Imjin River basin into four stages based on the Pilseung Bridge gauge: 1 meter for visitor evacuation, 2 meters for life safety alerts during dry seasons, 7.5 meters for a “border area crisis interest” stage and 12 meters for a “border area crisis caution” stage.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY JEON ICK-JIN [[email protected]]