Korea-Japan 'Contaminated Water Inspection Team' Agree on 'Four-Day Schedule'... 12-Hour Marathon Talks (Summary)

South Korea and Japan have agreed to conduct a four-day visit by a South Korean expert inspection team to the Fukushima nuclear power plant contaminated water site in Japan. Additional consultations on the detailed schedule of the inspection program will be held soon.

On the afternoon of the 12th, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Jongno-gu, Seoul, during the Korea-Japan working-level talks on the Fukushima contaminated water site inspection, Yoon Hyun-soo, Director General of the Climate Environment Science Diplomacy Bureau of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (right), and Kaifu Atsushi, Director of the Disarmament and Non-Proliferation Division of the Japanese side, entered the meeting room and took their seats.
[Photo by Yonhap News]

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on the 13th that South Korea and Japan held director-general level talks at the Seoul Ministry of Foreign Affairs building to discuss the specific details of dispatching the inspection team to Fukushima, reaching this agreement. The talks began at around 2:15 p.m. the previous day and ended at around 2 a.m. the following morning.

During the 12-hour "marathon" meeting, both sides engaged in in-depth discussions on the dispatch schedule and scope of activities, including inspection items, based on detailed proposals from the South Korean side.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated, "In the meeting that extended past midnight, both sides actively and seriously engaged in consultations to realize the prompt dispatch of our inspection team to Japan." Accordingly, the visit by the South Korean expert inspection team is expected to take place over three nights and four days, including the 23rd and 24th of this month.

Originally expected to last about four to five hours, the meeting extended to approximately 12 hours. This is presumed to be due to prolonged negotiations over specific facilities the inspection team could access and the information to be provided.

The meeting was led by Yoon Hyun-soo, Director General of the Climate Environment Science Diplomacy Bureau at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Atsushi Kaifu, Director of the Disarmament and Non-Proliferation Science Department at Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with participation from relevant agencies on both sides. The South Korean delegation included representatives from the Office for Government Policy Coordination, Nuclear Safety and Security Commission, Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, and Ministry of Science and ICT. The Japanese side had in-person attendance from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, while the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) and Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) participated via video conference.

The government plans to use this inspection to directly assess Japan’s radioactive nuclide analysis capabilities, the Advanced Liquid Processing System (ALPS) for contaminated water purification, and the operation status of discharge facilities, aiming to review the overall safety of the marine discharge process. The Japanese side is expected to review the inspection items requested by South Korea domestically and then engage in further consultations.

A Ministry of Foreign Affairs official explained, "We plan to promptly hold additional consultations through video meetings among working-level officials to finalize the necessary details related to the inspection team’s visit to Japan." The Japanese government also issued a press release on the same day, stating, "At the briefing session, explanations from the Japanese side and a Q&A were conducted based on the interests of the South Korean side." The Japanese side refers to the "director-general level talks" as a "briefing session."

Furthermore, the Japanese government emphasized, "Going forward, related agencies will work together to transparently and politely explain to the international community the safety of the treated water and the situation at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.