Two officials arrested in N. Korean dam incident

SEOUL, Sept. 23 (Yonhap) -- A local court issued an arrest warrant Wednesday for
two government employees accused of negligence leading to the deaths of six South
Korean campers following a Sept. 6 flash flood in a border river caused by North
Korea's sudden dam discharge.
The Uijongbu District Court, north of Seoul, accused the two -- a 34-year-old
employee of the state-run Korea Water Resources Corp., identified only as his
family name of Song, and a 40-year-old official, surnamed Ko, of Yeoncheon
County, Gyeonggi Province -- of negligent supervision of water levels of the
Imjin River, which runs through the western section of the inter-Korean border,
on the day of the flood caused by the North.
"There is a possibility of Song and Ko attempting to destroy evidence and fleeing
without detention," the court said, explaining the reason for its decision to
approve their arrest warrants.
North Korea's sudden discharge of some 40 million tons of water from one of its
border dams on Sept. 6 caused a flash flood on the Imjin River, sweeping away and
killing six campers.
Song was detained by police last week for ignoring warning signals from his
company's flood alert system installed along the Imjin River, while Ko was
accused of failing to notice a rapid rise in the river's water levels while on
night duty at the county office.
ycm@yna.co.kr
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