Japan, ROK to Hold Meeting on Fukushima Treated Water

By Hiroshi Mizota / Yomiuri Shimbun Correspondent

12:54 JST, May 9, 2023

Japan and South Korea will hold a meeting of ministerial directors regarding treated water to be released from Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc.’s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, a person associated with South Korea’s Foreign Ministry told reporters Monday.

At the meeting, officials are expected to discuss details on the dispatch of South Korean experts to the plant, which was agreed upon at the bilateral summit meeting Sunday.

The South Korean government plans to dispatch experts from related ministries, agencies and government-affiliated organizations from May 23 to 24. The size of the delegation will likely take into account that Taiwan sent eight people in its delegation that visited the site in March last year, according to South Korean media.

There is strong opposition in South Korea to the discharge of the plant’s treated water into the ocean. At the joint press conference Sunday, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol emphasized that the dispatch of the inspection team was a positive outcome of the summit meeting, saying, “[Prime Minister Fumio Kishida] promised that he would make efforts to resolve concerns about the health and safety of the South Korean people.”