S.Korea, Japan to hold working-level meeting on Fukushima inspection

SEOUL: South Korea and Japan plan to hold working-level consultations this week to discuss details of Seoul's inspection of Tokyo's plan to discharge contaminated water from the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant, the Foreign Ministry here said on Thursday.

The director-general-level meeting will be held in Seoul on Friday, with the South Korean side headed by Yun Hyun-soo, head of the ministry's bureau for climate change, energy, environment and scientific affairs, and the Japanese side led by Atsushi Kaifu, director-general of the Japanese foreign ministry's disarmament, non-proliferation and science department, reports Yonhap News agency.

The two sides will discuss details of the Seoul team's on-site inspection activities from May 23-24.

The team is expected to examine in detail Japan's water release plan and Japan's water treatment capacity that it claims to possess.

During a summit meeting in Seoul on Sunday, President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida agreed to allow a group of South Korean experts to visit the plant, as South Koreans remain highly concerned about Tokyo's plan.