hankyoreh

Members of farming and fishing organizations opposing Japan’s plan to release contaminated water from Fukushima hold a rally outside the Jeju Provincial Office in February, with some participants, pictured here, carrying a casket reading “Jeju’s oceans.” (Lee Jeong-yong/The Hankyoreh)

The release of irradiated water stored at TEPCO’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant into the sea seems to be around the corner.

The Japanese government will begin the discharge in June, once the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which was tasked with verifying the safety of the contaminated water, releases its final report.

The more than 1.3 million tons of contaminated water that was used in the response to the 2011 nuclear meltdown will be released over around 30 to 40 years. Because of the unprecedented nature of the situation, many in South Korea are raising concerns.

The damage to South Korea’s fishing industry, which borders Japan, seems obvious, since consumers will feel uneasy about the safety of seafood. South Korea is the world’s No. 1 consumer of seafood per capita.

Despite the gravity of the situation, the administration of President Yoon Suk-yeol in Korea has been repeating the same rhetoric for over a year, saying that it will “engage in scientific and objective verification for the sake of public health.”

The ruling People Power Party has been engaging in a full-scale war against the opposition over what it calls “baseless rumors” surrounding this issue.

On Wednesday, the ruling party devoted a significant amount of time regarding “scaremongering baseless rumors” by the opposition party during a meeting with ministers and the government inspection team that visited Fukushima.

“The Democratic Party’s ‘radioactivity scaremongering’ is pushing fishermen into a corner,” they said. “We mustn’t let the fishing industry shutter by starting the second ‘mad cow disease’ scare simply for political purposes.” You get the picture.

These arguments ignore the underlying causes for the worries surrounding this issue and have gotten basic facts wrong.

Long before the Democratic Party started pushing on the issue, Korean consumers were reporting that they would reduce their seafood consumption if Japan released the wastewater. For example, in April 2021, when the Japanese government decided to release the contaminated water, Consumers Korea surveyed 500 people and found that 91.2% of respondents said they would reduce their seafood consumption if the contaminated water was released.

No country in the world has ever discharged contaminated water on such a massive scale, and even world-renowned scientists are uncertain when it comes to its safety. It’s no wonder that consumers are nervous.

Of course Koreans are sensitive to environmental issues. Korea has seen the ruinous effects that chemicals can have on the human body in the case of the humidifier disinfectant scandal. Children cannot run around freely due to air pollution, and natural disasters associated with climate change have rocked the country.

In Japan, where the contaminated water is called “ALPS-treated water” (for its Advanced Liquid Processing System) and advertisements practically inculcate people into believing that the water is safe, consumers are equally anxious.

The Japanese government considers the decrease in seafood consumption as natural and, unlike Korea, has taken special measures. The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry has already set aside 80 billion yen (about US$574 million) in funds to soften the blow to fisheries.

TEPCO has decided to compensate individual victims without limitation on location, industry, or duration, because TEPCO recognizes that what’s causing the damage to fisheries and other industries is the discharge of contaminated water itself.

If Yoon and the ruling party are serious about public health and the fishing industry, they should stop complaining about “scaremongering” and make headway on two things: clarifying the South Korean government’s position on the safety of contaminated water, and coming up with practical measures for the fishing industry.

The damage caused by Japan’s wastewater discharge will not be limited to South Korea, but will directly affect neighboring countries, damages claims against TEPCO should also be considered.

The government has an obligation to reduce risks as much as possible to protect the lives and health of its citizens. This is what the South Korean government emphasized in April 2019 when it managed to win a World Trade Organization case against Japan over a ban on imports of Fukushima seafood.

A change of government does not change a country’s obligations.

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]