Suspicions of '1 Billion Won Promotion Cost for Contaminated Water Video'... Opposition Party: "Defending Japan with National Taxes?"

Video Emphasizing Contaminated Water Safety
Opposition Raises High View Count Suspicion "As Much as Lim Young-woong MV"

The Presidential Office has sparked controversy after reports emerged that it spent 38 million won to produce a government YouTube promotional video highlighting the safety of contaminated water from the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan. The opposition party criticized the South Korean government for endorsing the discharge of contaminated water as inappropriate, while also raising suspicions that the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism's 1 billion won promotional budget was used to boost view counts.

Earlier on the 22nd, Hankyoreh reported that the production cost of the video titled "The Truth About Fukushima Contaminated Water Told by the Nation's Top Experts," which promotes the safety of discharging contaminated water from the Fukushima nuclear power plant, was executed with a 38 million won budget from the Presidential Office.

Initially, the video was known to be produced with a 1 billion won budget from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism as part of a government policy promotion on "seafood safety management," but in reality, it was led and produced by the Presidential Office.

The Presidential Office stated in response to the report, "Using government and Presidential Office budgets for public safety promotions aligns with the purpose of budget management."

The controversial video contains statements emphasizing that even drinking a cup of coffee, a glass of milk, or eating an egg exposes the human body to radioactive substances, so there is no need to worry about health problems from the discharge of contaminated water, asserting that our seafood remains safe despite the discharge.

On the 7th of last month, the YouTube channel 'Daehanminguk Jeongbu' posted a video titled 'The Truth About Fukushima Contaminated Water According to the Nation's Top Experts.' [Image source=YouTube 'Daehanminguk Jeongbu' capture]

The opposition party criticized the Presidential Office for directly involving itself in producing a video that appears to defend the Japanese government's discharge of nuclear contaminated water.

On the 23rd, Park Seong-min, former Supreme Council member of the Democratic Party of Korea, appeared on SBS Radio's "Kim Taehyun's Political Show" and said, "Scientific verification of the discharge of contaminated water is something that can be sufficiently discussed," but added, "The problem is that our citizens are anxious and dissatisfied. Japan's actions cannot be justified for any reason, so we should strongly protest and properly raise the issue, but the government seems to be taking too submissive a stance."

He continued, "Ultimately, we have no choice but to question whether our opinions and domestic public sentiment were properly conveyed until the contaminated water was discharged."

Ryu Ho-jeong, a Justice Party lawmaker, also criticized on SBS Radio that day, saying, "It was really a waste of money," and added, "The government press release says they will continue monitoring and that the Japanese government is cooperating by sending related data to the Korean government. They could have simply conveyed that plainly, but why are they provoking the public with a video claiming to base it on scientific facts rather than rumors?"

Another controversy concerns suspicions that the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism's 1 billion won promotional budget was used to increase view counts. The video, posted on the 7th of last month, had recorded 16.25 million views as of 3 p.m. that day.

Democratic Party lawmaker Jang Cheol-min drew attention to the high view count of the video. On the same day, Jang appeared on "YTN NewsN Issue" and pointed out, "(The account that posted the video) is the official account of the Republic of Korea government, so it is really uninteresting. Yet, the Fukushima-related video reached 16 million views in a month," adding, "That's almost the same number of views as a music video by singer Lim Young-woong."

Jang criticized, "Isn't the 1 billion won promotional budget used by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism really just for boosting view counts? This is a number, method, and content that are truly incomprehensible from a common-sense perspective, so through the production and distribution process of this promotional video, we can clearly see how the Yoon Seok-yeol administration views the issue of Fukushima contaminated water."

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