South Korea to indefinitely ban Fukushima seafood over contaminated water dumping

July 3 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The parliamentary spokesman for the main South Korean party, the People’s Power Party (PPP), Yun Jae Ok, has assured that they will maintain the veto on fish products from the Japanese region of Fukushima due to the discharge of contaminated water from the nuclear power plant until they there is public concern about it.

“From the party’s point of view, I can say that imports of fishery products from Fukushima can be trusted to be banned indefinitely until there are no concerns about it,” Yun told reporters after a meeting with senior officials from the South Korean government, according to the South Korean news agency Yonhap.

“It does not matter if they are 10, 20, 30, 50 or even 100 years. The duration is not important. The Government is preparing with the firm conviction that any unsafe issue should not affect people’s diet,” he stressed.

About 1.33 million tons of treated water are stored at the facilities, which are almost at full capacity, according to data from the company that manages the Japanese plant.

Since the earthquake and subsequent tsunami in March 2011 that caused the meltdown of three cores by eliminating emergency cooling systems and generating large amounts of radioactive water have been accumulating at the Fukushima plant, where it has been mixed with rainwater and underground torrents.

The plan to release the polluted water — once it has been successfully treated — has met with strong opposition within Japan and also in China, Korea and other countries in the region.