<Anchor>
Today (12th), US and Japanese officials met to coordinate the details of the Fukushima Contaminated Water Inspection Group's activities. The government expects the size of the inspection team to be around 20 people, but it is still unclear whether they will be able to collect samples of contaminated water directly from the site.
Reporter Kim Ah-young contributed to this report.
< reporter>
Prior to the Japan-South
Korea consultations, the government held a briefing explaining the readiness to dispatch an inspection team.
He explained that the main inspection is scheduled for at least 23 nights and 24 days, on the 3rd and 4th, and that the plan is to form an inspection team of about 20 people.
[Park Koo-yeon/First Deputy Director of the State Affairs Coordination Office: We plan to make up the best experts in the field of safety regulation. We are reviewing experts who have been in charge of safety reviews so far.]
Based on the results of the consultations with Japan, we plan to finalize the list around next week after an internal review.
Regarding civilian participation, it seems that it will be difficult for the Japanese side to express difficulty because it is a government-to-government issue.
The government expects that there are data released by Japan and data that we have requested and received separately, and that a comprehensive analysis will be possible if we check the site based on this.
We are also interested in whether the inspection team will be able to collect and verify the samples themselves, but it is unclear whether this will happen at the moment.
This is because the IAEA, the International Atomic Energy Agency, is conducting sampling and analysis, and Korean experts are also involved.
The government has said the issue of renaming contaminated water to treated water will not be discussed in today's consultations.
When asked whether this inspection would serve as a pretext for importing seafood from Fukushima, he drew a line that there was no scientific problem and that it should be acceptable in terms of public sentiment.
(Video Interview: Park Young-il, Video Editing: Kim Ho-jin)
▶ Is it a 'consultation' or an 'briefing' ... What was the result of the first meeting between the diplomatic authorities of South Korea and Japan?
"The Fukushima inspection team consisted of about 20 people... It seems difficult to collect samples."
2023-05-12T13:18:51.659Z
Highlights: US and Japanese officials met to coordinate the details of the Fukushima Contaminated Water Inspection Group's activities. The government expects the size of the inspection team to be around 20 people, but it is still unclear whether they will be able to collect samples of contaminated water directly from the site. The IAEA, the International Atomic Energy Agency, is conducting sampling and analysis, and Korean experts are also involved. The issue of renaming contaminated water to treated water will not be discussed in today's consultations.
Today, we and Japanese officials met to coordinate the details of the Fukushima Contaminated Water Inspection Team's activities. The government expects the size of the inspection team to be around 20 people, but it is still unclear whether they will be able to collect samples of contaminated water directly from the site.
Source: sbskr