Fukushima likely on agenda when foreign ministers of Korea, Japan meet

Diplomacy

Published: 11 Jul. 2023, 16:58

Fukushima likely on agenda when foreign ministers of Korea, Japan meet

Foreign Minister Park Jin, left, and Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi shake hands during the Group of Seven meeting on May 20 in Hiroshima, Japan. [YONHAP]

The foreign ministers of Korea and Japan will likely discuss Japan's plan to release its treated radioactive water into the sea on the sidelines of the Asean Regional Forum in Indonesia this week.

Kicking off his trip to Jakarta on Wednesday, Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin is scheduled to meet with foreign ministers of Asean member states on Thursday, before convening with the foreign ministers of Japan and China in the East Asia Summit and in the Asean Regional Forum on Friday.

Park’s team is reportedly communicating with their counterparts in Japan, the United States, Australia, European Union, the Philippines, and the United Kingdom to schedule a bilateral foreign ministerial meeting on the sidelines of the forum. A trilateral U.S.-Korea-Japan ministerial meeting may also take place on the sidelines.

With Japan, “all topics of mutual interest” will be tabled for discussion, said a high-ranking Foreign Ministry official in speaking with a group of reporters in Seoul on Monday.

Likely to be included in the bilateral agenda is the Japanese plan to release its treated radioactive water from the ruined Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

Though supported by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as fully compliant with international standards, the plan has been met with widespread public opposition in Korea and sharply split the country's two biggest political parties.

A parliamentary group from Korea is in Japan this week to protest the plan.

“The dumping of contaminated water from the Fukushima nuclear power plant is an act against all of humanity as it would pollute the world's oceans beyond those around Japan,” said Joo Cheol-hyeon, a member of the Democratic Party (DP), during a rally in Tokyo on Monday.

“Japan should internationally apologize for the influx of nuclear waste into the ocean already caused by the accident at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, and immediately withdraw its long-term plan to dump a large amount of nuclear-contaminated water into the sea,” he said.

The DP delegation, also including Reps. Kim Seung-nam, Park Beom-kye, Yang Yiwongyoung and Wi Seong-gon, led rallies with anti-nuclear power civic groups in Japan, also protesting in front of Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s home in Tokyo. They also submitted a letter of protest to the Nuclear Regulation Authority in Japan.

Some Japanese passersby engaged with the parliamentary group, sometimes with heated arguments.

The parliamentary group was scheduled to meet with members of the Social Democratic Party in Japan on Tuesday.

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

The IAEA’s director general, Rafael Grossi, submitted last week the agency’s final report affirming the safety of the Japanese proposal to release the treated radioactive water into the sea.

In its proposal, Japan said it will process the wastewater from the Fukushima nuclear power plant with the Advanced Liquid Processing System (ALPS), which removes most of the nuclides from the water except for tritium, according to Tepco.

To lower the tritium level to below 1,500 becquerel (Bq) per liter, which is about one-seventh of the 10,000-Bq level set by the World Health Organization for drinking water, Tepco says that it will dilute the ALPS-treated water and gradually release 1.25 million tons of the Fukushima water over 30 years.

Grossi was in Seoul from last Friday to Sunday to meet with members of the DP and a group of Korean experts who inspected the Fukushima plant in person. The Korean group of experts also upheld the IAEA’s assessment of the plan last week.

Grossi and his delegation were met at times with strong protests from civic groups and DP members during their visit, including upon their arrival at the airport in Incheon.

In his meeting with aides on Monday, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo reportedly lamented the protests and said he plans to write a letter of apology.

“Grossi’s social media accounts and email accounts were reportedly bombarded with malicious comments and messages,” a high-ranking official of the prime minister’s office told the JoongAng Ilbo. “There is probably no other way than through a letter to convey [his apology].”

During Grossi’s meeting with the DP leadership, the liberal party’s legislators claimed that the IAEA produced a report partial to Japan and even collaborated with the Japanese government.

Japan’s Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Hirokazu Matsuno dismissed some of these claims.

“The claim questioning the neutrality of the IAEA’s comprehensive report is not correct and may even be questioning the existence of an international organization,” Matsuno said in a regular press briefing on Monday.

Kishida was expected to bring up the subject in his meeting with President Yoon Suk Yeol in Vilnius, Lithuania, during their expected meeting on the sidelines of the NATO summit this week.

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