Ruling Party Urges Stop to "Radioactive Water Misinformation Politics"... Calls for Prosecution Investigation on THAAD Environmental Assessment

Yoon Jae-ok "Cheonil Salt Crisis, Fake News Impact"
Park Dae-chul "Moon's Superiors Ignore THAAD Environmental Impact Assessment"
Lim E-ja "Actively Request Board of Audit and Inspection Review"

The People Power Party on the 27th fiercely condemned the opposition's offensive regarding Japan's discharge of contaminated water from Fukushima as "incendiary politics." They also urged that the truth be uncovered through an audit by the Board of Audit and Inspection and a prosecution investigation, claiming that the Moon Jae-in administration did not properly conduct the environmental impact assessment of THAAD.

Yoon Jae-ok, floor leader of the People Power Party, said at the floor strategy meeting held at the National Assembly on the 27th, "The Democratic Party claimed that the government had established a principle to ban imports of seafood from Fukushima, but they cleverly spread fake news to evade legal responsibility by shouting against the import ban as if they were allowing it and putting up banners," adding, "The (lawmakers') fasting also seems to be an extreme method to dilute the truth as the truth about the contaminated water became known."

Yoon Jae-ok, floor leader of the People Power Party, is attending the floor strategy meeting held at the National Assembly on the 27th. Photo by Kim Hyun-min kimhyun81@

He continued, "We asked them to stop the rumor-mongering and incendiary politics that are eating away at our society, but the Democratic Party does not seem willing to listen," emphasizing, "The government and ruling party will not give up efforts to spread scientific truth more widely and to alleviate public anxiety."

Furthermore, Floor Leader Yoon stated, "To ease public anxiety about solar salt, we are considering changing the current registration system to a mandatory tracking system and expanding radiation inspections conducted daily at 10 salt fields to more than 35 locations," adding, "The solar salt crisis is close to nonsense scientifically."

He said, "Experts generally agree that the possibility of tritium affecting our coastal waters is slim, and due to the nature of tritium evaporating with water, salt cannot remain," adding, "Nevertheless, the occurrence of the solar salt crisis shows how much fake news adversely affects society."

Park Dae-chul, chairman of the People Power Party Policy Committee, also said at the meeting that "Looking at the electromagnetic wave rumors about THAAD, one cannot help but ask why the environmental assessment was neglected for five years and who was responsible," pointing out, "Two months after the Moon Jae-in administration took office in 2017, the Ministry of National Defense announced the implementation of an environmental impact assessment as a government policy, but only small-scale assessments were conducted, and the general environmental impact assessment was neglected for five years." He added, "After the Yoon Seok-yeol government took office, the environmental impact assessment began in August 2022, and the final evaluation was announced last week," explaining, "It was confirmed that the Air Force measured four points monthly 34 times from March 2018 to January this year. The highest measurement during this period was about 0.025% of the protection standard."

Chairman Park said, "The general public has been completely unaware of this fact," adding, "Despite clear objective facts, fake news and rumor-mongering ran rampant, causing enormous damage to the residents of Seongju County," emphasizing, "It is a reasonable suspicion that the Moon Jae-in administration, knowing through electromagnetic wave measurements that it was harmless to the human body, still gave instructions, and such a thing would not happen without intervention from higher-ups."

Chairman Park insisted that the responsibility, including whether the Minister of National Defense, the National Security Office chief at the Blue House, and other diplomatic and security lines were involved, must be clearly identified. He added, "The truth must be uncovered through an audit by the Board of Audit and Inspection regarding the delay in the environmental impact assessment and, if necessary, a prosecution investigation."

Im Eui-ja, the ruling party's floor member of the National Assembly's Environment and Labor Committee, also said, "I strongly request Floor Leader Yoon Jae-ok," adding, "Please request an audit by the Board of Audit and Inspection to severely punish the Ministry of National Defense and related ministries that tried to neglect, hide, and conceal the environmental impact assessment for five years."

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