North Korea criticized on Sunday the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for its green light to Japan’s plan to discharge treated water from the Fukushima nuclear power plant.
Pyongyang denounces “the unreasonable behavior of the IAEA which actively supports and facilitates Japan’s projected discharge of nuclear-polluted water, which is unimaginable”, in a press release from the Ministry of Environmental Protection. This discharge of water will have “a fatal negative impact on human lives, security and the ecological environment”, worries the North Korean regime.
A plan that should start this summer
The plan, due to begin this summer, has sparked concern among Japan’s neighbors, prompting China to ban certain food imports and sparking protests in South Korea on Saturday, amid a visit by IAEA chief Rafael Grossi.
Members of the South Korean opposition have also mobilized against the Tokyo plan, some having even started a hunger strike. Rafael Grossi is expected to meet opposition members in parliament on Sunday.
1.33 million tons of water
The United Nations nuclear watchdog has approved the Japanese government’s plan to get rid – after treatment and dilution – of some 1.33 million tonnes of contaminated water, stored on the soon to be saturated site of the plant, ravaged by the triple disaster earthquake-tsunami-nuclear accident of March 11, 2011.
The agency estimated on Tuesday that this project “satisfies (knows) international safety standards” and will have a “negligible impact on the population and the environment”.
After a meeting on Saturday between Rafael Grossi and South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin, the head of the IAEA assured that his agency would remain at the Fukushima plant to ensure security “at every stage of the process”, tweeting: “What starts now is even more important than the work done so far.”