South Korean politician begins hunger strike to protest Fukushima water spill
Seoul, June 26 (EFE).- The leader of the Justice Party, a South Korean formation in the opposition, began a hunger strike Monday in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul to protest Tokyo’s plan to dump water from the Fukushima nuclear power plant at sea.
Lee Jeong-mi, leader of liberal bloc, told the media in front of the embassy that she took the decision because the government of conservative President Yoon Suk-yeol “remains in silence at a time when the water spill is imminent.”
“We cannot bear to see our government accept the lies of the Japanese government,” said Lee, who accused Yoon and his formation of being “a parrot” who repeat everything Tokyo says, in statements collected by Yonhap news agency.
Lee said her party could work with Japanese citizen groups and other opposition forces to convince Japan to oppose the plan and ultimately pressure Tokyo to reconsider dumping the water into the ocean.
The Japanese government and the operator of the Fukushima power plant, TEPCO, plan to begin the discharge to the Pacific of about 1.32 million tons of contaminated water from the power plant in the coming weeks, after being processed to remove most radioactive isotopes (except tritium) mixed with seawater.
Tokyo said the discharge will have a tritium concentration well below the legal limit set for drinking water.
South Korean government official Park Ku-yeon said different possibilities had already been considered on what to do with the accumulated water used to cool the damaged reactors and that the decision was made a decade ago with the support of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
“The method of dumping the water into the ocean was adopted as the most realistic alternative after taking scientific precedent and safety into account,” Park said.
A survey by the Korean Federation of Environmental Movements shows that 85 percent of South Koreans oppose the dumping of water into the pacific.
The plan also generated strong rejection in China and other countries in the region. EFE
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