The Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA), South Korea’s national weather agency, also said it plans to announce next month a series of measures the country should take in case Mount Baekdu, sitting on the border between China and North Korea, erupts.
The Seoul-based KMA said one of a handful of South Korea’s operational satellites will begin to monitor the mountain beginning next month to collect data on possible volcanic activities; the satellite Chollian will be utilized in addition to a sonar observatory on land that will be set up later this year, the KMA said.
Experts have said over the years that the mountain, which is 2,740 meters tall, may have an active core, citing satellite images. They’ve warned that an eruption would cause damage far greater than in Europe, where the eruption of an Icelandic volcano last year caused massive flight disruptions.
Mount Baekdu also contains 1 billion tons of water, which could deluge surrounding regions and even spark political chaos in the impoverished North, experts say.
“It’s hard to predict when Mount Baekdu will erupt and to what extent, but possibility remains open,” Lee Hyun, a KMA official in charge of earthquake control, said, adding the weather agency will step up the exchange of related information with China and Japan.
The last volcanic eruption at Mount Baekdu was in 1903. The mountain has since been considered inactive, but concerns emerged after a magnitude-7.3 earthquake hit northeastern China in 2002.
Some experts argue North Korea’s two nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009 may have stimulated the volcanic core at the mountain.
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com