SEOUL, South Korea: North Korea, apparently spooked by the earthquake in Japan, has proposed conducting research with rival South Korea on volcanic activity at their highest mountain, considered sacred by the North. North Korea's earthquake bureau sent a letter to South Korea's weather agency Thursday proposing joint quake and volcano research “in the common interests of the nation” at Mount Paektu, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported. South Korea's Unification Ministry confirmed the proposal Friday and said Seoul was considering the idea. “The South Korean government recognizes the need for inter-Korea cooperation regarding natural disasters such as volcanic activities and earthquakes,” spokesman Chun Hae-sung said at a briefing in Seoul. “We will examine the North's proposal from this perspective.” Iconic Mount Paektu, which borders China, last erupted in 1903 but remains active, with the region regularly registering quake activity, experts say. Paektu, spelled Baekdu by the South Koreans, is considered one of the peninsula's most beautiful sites. North Korean lore calls it the birthplace of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, and official portraits of the leader and his father, late President Kim Il Sung, often show them standing in front of Paektu. Pyongyang's proposal comes as relations between the two Koreas remain strained a year after the deadly sinking of a South Korean warship and an artillery attack on a front-line South Korean island that killed four people in November. Seoul blames Pyongyang for the sinking of the Cheonan, which killed 46 South Korean sailors.
