The discharge caused flood damage in the northern part of Gyeonggi Province, north of Seoul, according to provincial government officials.

Officials said North Korea opened the floodgates of its dam on the Imjin River over the weekend without prior notice, sharply raising the water level of the border river to a near-flood level just in three hours.

South Korean residents and farmers near the river were unprepared for the sudden rise in river water. Farmland was flooded ahead of the harvest and small fishing boats and vehicles parked along the river were wrecked after being carried away by floods. The discharge forced about 100 residents and tourists near the river to evacuate, officials said.

"I lost fishing nets and crops by the flood. We want the government to protest at the North's water discharge and take measures to prevent this case from occurring again," said Ryu Jae-bom, a 51-year-old resident in Yeoncheon, a border town.

South Korean officials said the sudden discharge seemed part of anti-flood efforts ahead of a powerful typhoon approaching the Korean peninsula.

The North Korean dam also discharged large amounts of floodwater without prior warning in September 2002, causing economic damage in the South. The more-recent discharge came despite the North's pledge to notify the South of any such plans.

The two Koreas have discussed for years joint measures to deal with the annual flooding of a river that originates in the North and flows across the border into the South, but there are no concrete joint anti-flood agreements yet.

North Korea has occasionally provided prior notice of a dam discharge. It announced plans to discharge water from the Imnam Dam on the Han River, which runs through Seoul, in June 2002 and August last year. Seoul is 25 miles from the heavily fortified border with North Korea, which has deployed 70 percent of its 1.1-million-strong military near the near the Demilitarized Zone separating the two countries.

The two Koreas have radio and fixed-line communication channels between their military and government offices, but they are rarely used for civilian purposes. The two Koreas, divided in 1945, are technically at war because their 1950-53 conflict ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty. Their border is the world's last Cold War flashpoint with nearly 2 million troops on both sides.

South Korea's Unification Ministry, which handles relations with North Korea, said Tuesday it sent a message to the North expressing regret over the dam incident and demanded measures to prevent its recurrence.

"The ministry expressed its regrets and pointed out that a dam discharge without prior notice will take a negative toll on the North-South relations," a ministry spokesman said. "In the telephone message, we also called for the North to fully comply with its agreement on anti-flood measures," he said.

South Korean concerns about floods were fueled as a powerful typhoon Nabi devastated the country's southeastern area with torrential rain and high winds Tuesday, causing floods, paralyzing transport and forcing people to flee their homes.

Local airlines cancelled dozens of domestic and international flights because of the weather and ships were warned to stay in port. Most ferry services were also cancelled.

In 2003, Typhoon Maemi, the most powerful storm to hit South Korea in a century, left nearly 120 people dead and 13 others missing. Property damage was tallied at $4.6 billion.

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