Science and Health

ROK, DPRK join hands for volcano research

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-03-29 10:20

MUNSAN/SEOUL - The Republic of Korea (ROK) and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) teamed up Tuesday for a rare joint research into volcanic activities at the highest mountain on the Korean peninsula.

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The meeting, kicked off in the ROK's border city of Munsan, brought together civilian experts from both sides of the border to discuss a possibility of volcanic eruptions of Mount Paekdu amid rising concern following the devastating earthquake and tsunami in neighboring Japan.

Four ROK's geologists and earthquake experts will sit down with DPRK volcano experts in a meeting first proposed by Pyongyang, which many here say might potentially signify a thaw in frozen inter-Korean ties.

The 2,740-meter mountain, which sits on the DPRK border with China, last erupted in 1903 and has since been inactive, but experts have warned it might have an active core and a potential eruption would create a greater chaos than the Icelandic volcanic eruption last year.