The Unification Ministry has repeated calls on North Korea to abide by an inter-Korean agreement on discharging water from the North's Hwanggang Dam.

Ministry Spokesman Jeong Joon-hee said on Wednesday at a regular news briefing that if Pyongyang is truly interested in dialogue, peace or inter-Korean relations, it should be willing to give prior notice to Seoul when it releases water from the dam.

The spokesman said that the Seoul government is trying to figure out the North’s motives for its latest unannounced water release. He added that the government needs to check exactly when the North opened the floodgates and how much water was discharged.

Regarding calls for inter-Korean dialogue, the spokesman said that it’s hard to say that various issues between the two Koreas all stem from a lack of dialogue. He pointed out that damage from the North’s abrupt water discharge had occurred even during times when the two sides were talking.