South Korean activists have stepped up protests against Japan’s plan to release treated radioactive water from the tsunami-wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant into the ocean.
Opposition Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung, for his part, said on Wednesday that they intend to hold the government of South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol responsible for "failing to do its duties." Lee slammed Japan's plan to discharge water from the Fukushima plant as an act of "terror."
He insisted that "Japan is about to bring irreversible calamity to South Korea and Pacific Rim countries with the release of radioactive contaminated water."
South Korea's main opposition Democratic Party members hold electric candles and signs reading "Fukushima contaminated water" during a rally against Japan's plan to release treated water from the Fukushima nuclear plant, at the National Assembly in Seoul on August 23, 2023
© AFP 2023 / JUNG YEON-JE
His party also held a candlelight rally, which is due to be followed by a march toward the presidential office in Seoul on Thursday and a public rally on Saturday.
Wednesday’s events are the latest in a series of rallies attended, in particular, by Choi Kyoung-sook of Korea Radiation Watch, an activist group that organized one of the protests.
Choi warned that if the water is discarded, “radioactive substances contained in the contaminated water will eventually destroy the marine ecosystem."
"We are opposed […] because we believe the sea is not just for the Japanese government, but for all of us and for mankind," the activist added.
This followed Japan’s nuclear regulator granting approval for TEPCO to start releasing the water, which Tokyo and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) claim is safe.
The Fukushima nuclear disaster occurred on March 11, 2011. The plant was severely damaged by a magnitude 9 earthquake in the Pacific Ocean, which triggered a massive tsunami that hit the plant and caused three nuclear reactors to melt down. The accident is considered the worst nuclear disaster since the 1986 Chernobyl accident, something that has resulted in widespread contamination of local soil and water. The Fukushima disaster left 22,200 people dead or missing.