South Korea Considers Actions Against Japan Over Plan to Release Radioactive Water from Fukushima Plant
Voice of America
South Korean President Moon Jae-in has ordered his Cabinet to consider filing a complaint with an international court against Japan’s decision to release radioactive water from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean.
Presidential spokesman Kang Min-seok told reporters Wednesday in Seoul that President Moon wants officials to examine whether to bring the matter to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea. Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga announced Tuesday that his government had approved a plan to empty 1.3 million tons of contaminated water from Fukushima into the ocean beginning next year, when the plant’s storage tanks will be full. Suga said the plan to release the water in the sea is an “unavoidable” part of decommissioning the Fukushima facility. Moon also personally expressed his concerns about the plan Wednesday to Koichi Aiboshi, Japan’s envoy to South Korea, when Aiboshi formally presented his credentials. He told the ambassador the two countries are geographically close to each other and share the same sea.A TV screen shows a file image of North Korea's rocket launch during a news program at a bus terminal in Seoul, South Korea, May 27, 2024. FILE - Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi speaks to reporters in Colombo, July 29, 2023. FILE - A TV screen shows a report of North Korea's spy satellite into orbit with its third launch attempt this year with an image of North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un during a news program at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Nov. 22, 2023.
Palestinians gather at the site of an Israeli strike on a camp for internally displaced people in Rafah on May 27, 2024. Fire rages following an Israeli strike on an area designated for displaced Palestinians, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, in this still picture taken from a video, May 26, 2024. Palestinians gather at the site of an Israeli strike on a camp for internally displaced people in Rafah on May 27, 2024. A member of the bomb squad of the Israeli police collects debris after a rocket fired by Palestinian militants struck in the Israeli city of Herzliya on May 26, 2024.