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Behold the shameful exchange of attacks

Published: 14 Jun. 2023, 23:45

“How about letting your families and residents of your constituency first drink the water [discharged from the Fukushima nuclear plant] as both of you are old?” asked Rep. Yoon Jae-kab, a Democratic Party (DP) lawmaker, to Prime Minister Han Duck-soo and Rep. Sung Il-jong, a People Power Party (PPP) lawmaker, in the National Assembly on Monday. The DP lawmaker asked the question after the prime minister answered, “I can drink the water if it meets the safety standards” when the prime minister was earlier asked by Rep. Kim Sung-joo, another DP lawmaker, if he would drink the water if its safety is confirmed.

After Rep. Kim proposed to bring the water to Korea, the prime minister said, “Go ahead if you insist.” In response, Rep. Yoon, the DP lawmaker, recommended that the families of the prime minister and Rep. Sung — the head of a task force to protect our seas — drink the water together with his constituents if it is really clean.

The dirty fight continued through lawmakers’ questioning session to the government the following day. After the prime minister reaffirmed his position, another DP lawmaker ridiculed him for “representing the Japanese government.” The prime minister criticized the lawmaker for making an over-the-top remark. Such substandard tits for tats were briskly exchanged between the government and the DP until Wednesday for three days of Q&As between lawmakers and the government.

The two parties put the blame on each other. After the PPP warned against spreading fake news about the safety of the water, the DP asked why Tokyo would discharge the water to the Pacific if it is really clean. DP Chair Lee Jae-myung counterattacked by attributing fake news to the government. In the meantime, alarm bells are ringing for the livelihood of the people.

News reports say that sun-dried salt is running short after the people rush to buy it before Japan fully discharges the contaminated waters. Once Tokyo starts to release the treated water into the sea, our fishermen will likely suffer considerable damages in their sales of fish and other maritime products due to consumers’ resistance.

The farcical episodes in the legislature dumbfound us. In 1590, two years before the Japanese invasion of the Joseon Dynasty, two emissaries dispatched to Tokyo to detect signs of aggression submitted two different reports to the court, based on their partisan interests, which threw the court into confusion. The exchange of the shameful rhetoric in the legislature reminds us of the disgraceful moment over four centuries ago.