Over 100,000 South Koreans
signed a campaign against Japan's intended discharge of radioactive water from
its damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant. The signature campaign was launched
by South Korea's leading opposition Democratic Party (DP) which officially
kicked off in the capital Seoul on Friday.
DP Chairman Lee Jae-Myung
expressed his concerns, saying DP will "fight, together with the
people," to maintain clean ocean waters and to ensure that employees in
the marine food business "do not suffer damage."
Japan intends to discharge
radioactive wastewater that has been cleansed into the sea in the spring or
summer, prompting criticism and concerns from the nearby fishing villages and
neighboring nations.
A new analysis has found that
8 out of 10 Koreans resist the Japanese government's intention to discharge
radioactive water into the ocean. The survey was carried out by the polling
company Research View, and it was released on Thursday by the Korea Federation
for Environmental Movements.
From May 19 to May 22, it
polled 1,000 men and women in Korea who were at least 18 years old. According
to the results, 73% of those surveyed were "strongly opposed" to the
release of tainted water, while 12.4% were "generally opposed." In
Total, 85.4 percent opposed the amendment.
The percentage of respondents
who said they "generally agreed" or "strongly agreed" were
6.4 percent and 4.3 percent, respectively. Those who answered
"unsure" or "other" accounted for 3.9 percent.
In addition, 79 percent of
respondents said they did not believe the Japanese government's assertion that
the release of polluted water from Fukushima would not endanger public safety.
Only 17% of those polled stated they agreed with this assertion.
South Korea had sent a
21-member expert handing over to Fukushima for the inspection of the facility
and finished the tour on Thursday. The team examined facilities associated with
the K4 tanks, which have been explicitly designed for the storage and
measurement of radioactive materials. The assessment report, according to South
Korean experts, is expected to be released after they confirm several things.
The DP had objected to the
team's visit, saying that it may wind up endorsing the intended release of
tainted water. The opposition party also charged South Korean President Yoon
Suk-yeol of taking Japan's side at the expense of the wellbeing of his own
people.