DP lawmakers railroad resolution on Fukushima water release

Minister of Environment Han Wha-jin, left, responds to questions from Democratic Party Rep. Noh Woong-rae during the Assembly's Environment and Labor Committee meeting on Tuesday. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

Members of the liberal Democratic Party (DP) of the Assembly’s oceans and fisheries committee unilaterally passed on Tuesday a resolution to oppose the Japanese plan to release treated radioactive water into the sea, even as People Power Party (PPP) members up and left the meeting in protest.

The resolution urges Japan to revoke its plan to release the treated water from its ruined Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant and also proposes taking the case to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea.

“It was my understanding that there have been ample discussions between members of the two parties in the committee on the resolution,” said So Byung-hoon, a DP lawmaker and chair of the committee, in addressing the Agriculture, Food, Rural Affairs, Oceans and Fisheries Committee where the DP has the majority.

The resolution was not part of the original agenda the committee members had agreed to prior to the meeting but was added after the meeting’s commencement on Tuesday morning.

PPP members of the committee protested strongly.

“By nature of the committee’s regulations, a resolution to be discussed in the committee meeting should have been discussed between the DP and PPP members, which has not been the case here,” said Lee Dal-gon, a PPP lawmaker from South Gyeongsang. “A resolution tabled for discussion in such a last-minute manner, where the PPP members are informed of it in the middle of the committee meeting, cannot be representative of both the DP and PPP views on the matter.”

The two parties have lately been engaged in political wranglings over the Japanese plan to release the treated water from its ruined Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

The DP had even sent letters last week to members of the Pacific Islands Forum to cooperate with the party to try to stop Japan from releasing its treated water into the sea. The Foreign Ministry in Seoul protested immediately, releasing a statement warning the DP of “overstepping” the checks and balances in the government.

DP committee members including Yoon Joon-byeong and Shin Jeong-hoon argued that there is not much time left for discussions if they want to stop Japan from releasing the treated water.

“Their underwater tunnel is ready, it could be any day now,” Shin said.

When So put the resolution to vote, all PPP members walked out. The 11 DP members of the 19-person committee passed the resolution.

A resolution passed by the Assembly's committee meetings does not have any binding legislative power. They function more as a statement.

The Yoon Suk Yeol government has not supported Japan on its plan to discharge the treated water, but in an attempt to address growing public fear of the water’s impact on their health, dispatched last month a team of experts to visit the plant and meet with its operators.

While the team did not collect a sample of the treated water on-site, they examined the treatment system on-site and requested relevant data from the operators to make their independent analyses. The team has not yet released their findings.

The credibility of the team and their findings have also been a topic of debate between the two political parties since.

“If the DP cannot trust our own Korean expert who is part of the monitoring team at the International Atomic Energy Agency [IAEA], and if they cannot trust our group of experts who have visited the facilities in Fukushima, then who can they trust?” asked PPP Rep. Ahn Byung-gil during the committee meeting on Tuesday.

The environment minister, Han Wha-jin, was grilled during the Assembly’s Environment and Labor Committee meeting on Tuesday.

“Looks like Japan could be planning to release the water as soon as July 4, and in the meanwhile has even ensured it has measures to protect its fishermen,” said DP Rep. Jeon Yong-gi in questioning Han. “Does the administration have a solution for protecting our fishermen should the water be discharged into the sea?”

Han deflected the question to “other relevant bureaus” handling the oceans and fisheries matter, but emphasized that the Korean government “will not stand by the plan if it is confirmed to be scientifically unsafe.”

A massive earthquake and tsunami struck Japan on March 11, 2011, destroying the Fukushima nuclear power plant.

The plant's operator, Tepco, has said that all radioactive materials will be removed from the to-be-released water except tritium, which experts say is not harmful to human health in small amounts.

The plan has been supported by the IAEA.

Local reports in Japan put July 4 as a possible date when Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will meet with IAEA chief Rafael Grossi to receive a final report from the agency on Japan’s plan.

BY ESTHER CHUNG [chung.juhee@joongang.co.kr]