Bang Moon-kyu: "Japan's Contaminated Water, Same Position as Previous Government... No Consideration for Separate Negotiations"

Bang Moon-kyu, Minister for Government Policy Coordination, stated on the 15th regarding the issue of the discharge of contaminated water from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Japan, "We maintain the position that, as with the previous government, we will oppose it unless it is verified from a scientific and objective perspective and disposed of safely in accordance with international standards."

Minister Bang made this remark in response to a question from Song Seok-jun, a member of the People Power Party, during the plenary session of the National Assembly's Political Affairs Committee, asking, "(Some say) our government unconditionally supports the discharge of contaminated water. Is that true?"

Minister Bang emphasized, "We adhere to the principle of approaching this scientifically and thoroughly informing the public of the information obtained," and stated that the government's daily briefings on the contaminated water issue, which began that day, will continue until the public's concerns are resolved.

He explained, "Why would a government responsible for public safety not be concerned? When the method of discharging (contaminated water) was decided in 2021, we reviewed whether to file a complaint with international organizations. However, we judged that there was no practical benefit in filing such a complaint, so we proposed participating in the scientific verification process."

In response to a question from Kim Han-gyu of the Democratic Party asking whether separate negotiations with the Japanese government are being conducted to prevent the discharge of contaminated water, he said, "We are not considering such measures."

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