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July 6th, 2017
Via The Korea Times, a report on the potential for water issues to escalate tension between the Koreas:
Climate change is creating water scarcity around the world, and Korea is not an exception, especially considering inter-Korean relations.
“If North Korea releases water from a dam, it can change the water course,” said Ashok Swain, a professor at the Department of Peace and Conflict Research at Uppsala University in Sweden, during a lecture at the East Asia Foundation, a think-tank based in Seoul. His field of expertise is trans-boundary water conflict.
In 2009, North Korea released water from a dam on the Imjin River that killed six South Koreans who were camping downstream.
Thursday’s lecture came as Korea is gripped by severe drought. The professor said South Korea is already a water stressed country. “It’s not physical scarcity of water where there’s no drinkable water, but Korea imports huge amounts of virtual water,” the professor said.
Virtual water refers to water used in industrial and agricultural production. The amount of virtual water one person uses in Korea is 1,179 cubic meters per year. Korea is the fifth largest virtual water importer, after Japan, Italy, England and Germany, he said.
But Swain’s classification doesn’t sit well with some scholars and policy makers in Korea. They claim Korea has enough water. Korea’s precipitation is not bad, but it is concentrated in the summer monsoon season, making conservation challenging.
Exceptionally dry weather this year took many by surprise, and scientists said it will happen more often in the future.
Swain said climate change puts water high on the national security agenda for many governments. The Mekong River is a prime example where China, upstream from Myanmar, Vietnam and Cambodia, is building more dams resulting in drought in these countries downstream.
Making matter worse, China is refusing to communicate with the governments of the affected countries. The conflict between India and Pakistan is also serious, but the situation is better than it is with China and the aforementioned countries because India and Pakistan signed a water agreement recently.