Title: Korean government still have a time
Since the Japanese government discharged the nuclear-contaminated water in Fukushima on August 24th, many South Koreans worried about the impact of the discharge on the ocean. Of course, the government did try to manage the contaminated water crisis, but still, it is causing controversies. First, The Korean government’s decision could damage Koreans, given that they chose the relationship with Japan, rather than our own sake. Second, Deploying experts to the Fukushima nuclear plant is a practical solution, but still, it is not enough for our people. Lastly, the discharge issue became a topic for the political warfare, which had to be fixed by cooperating with other countries.
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol took part in a trilateral summit conference to make better relationships between Japan and the U.S., a consequence has turned out he reached an agreement that the three countries would reinforce their military power, but in the agenda, he was mainly focused on security matters, rather than the discharge issue, which has to be addressed for worried Korean people. By his unintentionally supporting the Japanese government’s decision to discharge the contaminated water, the economic situation in the domestic fish market became worse than ever before, due to public awareness, which led Korean people to be terrified to eat seafood, and a sanction to block imports from the Japanese ocean. All diplomatic actions from the government should proceed based on ‘Korea First’, and the government’s decision to not set priority to Korean people but the relationship with Japan was not either beneficial to the Korean economy or for the public interest.
The Korean government reached an agreement that experts from South Korea and the IAEA will visit to IAEA Fukushima branch, every two weeks for discharge inspection. Additionally, the IAEA decided to create the plan so-called ‘IAEA-ROK Fukushima Information Mechanism’(IKFIM), which includes sharing the latest information about discharging contaminated water and conducting video conferences to explain comprehensive situations as well as Q&A sessions. It seems quite a practical and realistic solution in this period. Still, a lot of Korean people will think that the data from the inspection could be not accurate, since TEPCO decided to give part of their data, instead of the whole data. In this case, the Korean government should create an exclusive government agency to monitor the entire situation of the Fukushima nuclear plant, as well as monitor impacts on the ocean near the Korean Peninsula. To address this issue, it is necessary that Yoon’s regime should get more cooperation from the Japanese government.
Currently, the Fukushima contaminated water discharge issue has become a topic of political warfare between the ruling party and the Democratic Party. The more political parties engage to political warfare, the more Korean people will be worried and polarizing themselves. It is time for the Korean government should cooperate with other countries, such as the U.S. and China. In order to resolve such an issue, it is necessary to create a combined organization between South Korea, the United States, and China to make it clear whether discharging the contaminated water is safe or not. There is no time to waste to dispute for blaming the Yoon Suk-yeol government or defending the ruling party’s decision from each side. The most important thing is to make clear the rumors and stereotypes about the discharge issue by cooperating with the same stakeholders like U.S. and China.
It is true that the Korean government had not made a significant solution for the Fukushima issue, given national fish market is now confronting an unexpected market recession, as well as not enough information was given to the South Korean government, which led Korean people to feel more terrified of the potential negative impacts on the ocean. Thus, the South Korean government should cooperate with other countries to make it clear to dismiss the rumors and other concerns that alleviate the ongoing negative impacts that happening in South Korea.