hankyoreh

South Korea is reportedly considering a request by North Korea to discuss cooperation on a possible eruption of Mt. Baekdu, a volcano straddling the North Korea and China border.
North Korea sent a message to the head of the Korea Meteorological Administration on Thursday calling for talks with South Korea on joint research of the mountain, visits to the sites and academic debates.
“The South Korean government realizes that cooperation between North Korea and South Korea is necessary over natural disasters like volcanic eruptions or earthquakes,” said Unification Ministry spokesman Chun Hae-sung that day. “I would like to announce that discussions among related bureaus within the government are now taking place.”
South Korean and Chinese experts have warned for years that the volcano could erupt again since 1903. South Korea's National Intelligence Service said last October during an audit session at the National Assembly that there was a need for cooperation between the two Koreas for a possible eruption.

S.Korea prepared to evacuate Koreans in Japan
The South Korean government said it will send military aircraft and boats to evacuate Koreans from Japan if the country’s nuclear crisis worsens.
Second Vice Foreign Minister Min Dong-seok said, “If the crisis worsens, we have a plan to evacuate Koreans by sending all available military aircraft and maritime police boats.”
The government has advised Koreans to evacuate from the vicinity of the Fukushima nuclear plant and Koreans who are living outside the 80-kilometer-radius to move further away until the situation improves.
Meanwhile, President Lee Myung-bak visited the Japanese embassy in Seoul Friday to convey a message of condolences for the victims of last week's massive earthquake and tsunami.

Police warn about donation scams amid Japan’s disaster
Two South Koreans were caught allegedly running an online charity for quake-stricken Japan with a bank account falsely named as one acknowledged by the Japanese Red Cross, the police said Friday.
According to the police, two employees of a Japan-based advertisement company’s office in Seoul sent out Twitter messages to 70,000 Korean Twitter users, saying they were collecting donations for earthquake victims in Japan. They said donations were supposed to be delivered to the Japanese Red Cross Society. The two men raised a total of 2.75 million Won ($2,440) since they started the campaign on Wednesday,
An official at the Korean Red Cross said "We reported this matter to the police because we are concerned that some people could become victims of scams that use the name Red Cross without permission from responsible authorities."

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