Divided Koreas hold their first-ever volcano talks

In a rare scene of cooperation, the two Koreas began a meeting of geology experts Tuesday to gauge the potential threat of a volcanic eruption at a mountain considered sacred by both sides.

The meeting, which took place in this western South Korean border town of Munsan, came amid heightened concerns over natural disasters in the wake of a killer earthquake and ensuing tsunami that have driven neighboring Japan into a national crisis.

Heads of delegations of two Koreas shake hands at the volcano talks held in the western South Korean border town of Munsan Tuesday. (Yonhap News)

The volcano talks, the first of their kind between the Koreas, also came amid growing views that the sides are putting out feelers for ways to resume dialogue and ease tension that spiked when the North shelled a South Korean island last November, killing four people.

Drawing three volcano experts from North Korea, the meeting was attended by four South Korean geologists, including one from a state institute, at a checkpoint building near the heavily armed border.

Yoon Yong-geun, head of the North Korean delegation, quietly strutted past South Korean journalists asking him questions after he shook hands with South Korean scholars who had awaited him.

North Korea had first proposed the talks, calling in mid-March for a government-level meeting to discuss joint research and seminars on a possible eruption at Mount Paekdu, a 2,750-meter-high peak that sits on the border between China and North Korea.

In a counter-proposal later accepted by the North, South Korea, which suspects Pyongyang is in dire need of aid, has downgraded the talks to a civilian level of academic nature.

Mount Paekdu, the highest on the Korean Peninsula, last erupted in 1903, but experts have recently warned that it may still have an active core, citing topographical signs and satellite images.

The concerns further rose after a magnitude-7.3 earthquake hit northeastern China in 2002. Some argue North Korea's nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009 have also stimulated the core of the mountain.

Mount Paekdu is considered sacred by people of both Koreas. It is mentioned in South Korea's national anthem while Pyongyang claims its 69-year-old leader, Kim Jong-il, was born there, one of the most conspicuous elements of the personality cult surrounding him.

The relations between the Koreas remain at the worst point in years after a series of incidents that claimed dozens of South Korean lives last year, including the North's bombardment of the South Korean island of Yeonpeyong in the Yellow Sea.

In an effort to defuse tension, the sides held colonel-level defense talks in February but to no avail as the North continued to refuse to accept responsibility for the incidents, including the March sinking of a South Korean warship in the Yellow Sea.

Experts have warned that an eruption at Mount Paekdu would cause political and economic chaos, even thwarting the stability of the communist regime in Pyongyang. In Europe last year, an Icelandic volcano caused massive flight disruptions, paralyzing air traffic and stymieing various political and economic activities.